Mass Effect: Beauty and the Beast (Full version: Over 200 chapters)
by ClanofHeroesandHeroines
Summary: As Shepard and his whole crew come together to fight the biggest threat ever to live, they must find a way to overcome the fear. This will cover everything that is major and will have war assets to ME3 (Mass Effect 3) game. There are some twists. Also, leave a review with a suggestion. I gladly will like that. "Windows are structural weaknesses, Geth do not use them."
1. Part One of Three of Story

Beauty and the Beast Part 1 of 3

Plot: Commander Shepard is after Saren and has a full team. He doesn't know that he also is in love with a special person. The Team is Garrus, Wrex, Ragan (OC), Tali'Zorah, Jane (twin sister), Ashley and Kaiden.

This is only the first part. There will be two more like this. And they will tell you what they are.

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**AUTHOR NOTE: **If you want to add my story to a community, PM me first. I don't like it when someone just puts it to their own hands without my permission. So ask and you will get an answer. If I don't answer in 24 hours (1 day) then you are not allowed to add my story to your or someones community at all. If I find out about this, I will ask for the community to remove my story.


	2. Chapter 1: An Unlikely Prince

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: THANK YOU W.A.R1989 for allowing me to have your story modified. You are getting credit for it. I want to have you to be know that I PMed him about this and he agreed as long as I give him credit.**

**READER'S NOTE: This story was given to me by W.A.R1989 with permission on this and so I have decided that you have all three Beauty and the Beast in one book. There will be chapters that will be missed due to not being related to Shepard and Tali. I am giving you this information right now so that you will not go on a riot.**

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Chapter 1: An Unlikely Prince

'_Oh Keelah! I'm done for'_ is what the girl thought, she had only left home for two years and already she had gotten herself into a life-threatening situation. Her name was Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, a Quarian, from the Migrant Fleet; she is on her pilgrimage, and it was a rite of passage into adulthood for her people, but now it is a disaster. It started well enough, an odd job here and there, if she could get a job, Quarians weren't exactly looked upon with great respect by the rest of the galactic community, in fact they were seen as less than trash. One day, she found a gold mine, an intact Geth, synthetics created by her people who drove them off their home planet of Rannoch after a rebellion of disobeying orders, the ones responsible for her people's humiliation, and extracted its memory core, before it could fry it. Now Tali wish she could be done with the damned core, because now she was being hunted down for the data in the core. The data revealed the betrayal of a council Spectre (Special (Spec) Tactic (t) and Recon (re)), an elite of the Citadel Council's military power, the Spectre was not happy about it, and set up a hit on her.

Now she is trapped, stuck in the corridors of the Wards, facing her three assailants, two Salarians and a Turian, she could fight back, after all she had trained with Migrant Fleet Marines, because of her father's position as admiral, but the fact of the matter it was still three against one. Was this it? Was she going to die here alone with no one caring? '_Look like it, after all who is going to save a 'suit rat'' _she though bitterly, but she didn't want to die, she was scared. She threw a proxy mine at one of the assassins, it had stunned them, but it had only delayed her date with death. She was behind a box, she knew she was done for, but she was not going to die quietly, she was going to take one of those bosh'tets (Quarian word that means two meanings: Company (because bosh means company) of idiots or Son of a Bitch) with her, as the age of twenty-two, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya would soon be with her ancestors. She rose up to face the assassins only to hear a gunshot, she flinched thinking she had been shot, she didn't feel anything.

She then realized it had come from the other direction. '_Behind me,_' she thought. In fron of her was a Turian in blue alarmo, C-Sec armor, which was strange considering people from C-Sec, saw her people a criminals and their favorite punching bags. The other was a Krogan in red armor, large lizard like race, known for their violent tempers, but to see a Krogan and a Turian work together was rare and strange sight, the two races nerver had good relations, especially after the Krogan Rebellions centuries ago. Bringing up the rear were two Humans, a race she had little to no contact with, other than the doctor that treated her when she was wounded on the Citadel. '_Must be the leaders,_' she though. Before she could blink, the odd group took down the assassins quickly and easily.

Was this her lucky day? It seems justice can happen in this galaxy. The Krogan began to speak. "Well that was boring, at least they didn't kill the Quarian," he said. Tali was angry, she had a name, being refer to a just the 'Quarian' didn't sit well with her, too many races refer to her race with contempt.

"My name is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, not Quarian; I suggest you get it right Krogan,' she hissed. The Krogan narrowed his eyes at the girl, but to Tali's surprised the Krogan started laughing loudly.

"You got a quad on you, kid, most would be dead talking to a Krogan like that," he said with great amusement. The Humans gave the Krogan a look, and stopped laughing, '_The Humans must be something to get a Krogan to listen to them_' she thought.

"Enough Urdnot Wrex," said one of the Humans, a mean voiced type one that had a fire in his eyes that made the words feel like it would kill you when he spoke. Tali looked at the Humans, both male. Tali then saw the difference from them, one was Japanese-Caucasian and the other was full Japanese. The one that spoke was full Japanese, "Miss nar Rayya, I apologize for his," he turns his head at Wrex, "unexpected rude manners of not asking you your name before anything else."

Tali looks at the Human that spoke for a bit, of all the known race, she had little knowledge of Humans, the recent addition of galactic community. Unlike the doctor, this human was male also the Human skin was lighter than the Human doctor who treated her; his eyes were hazel and slanted much like her people, but there was no hair on top of his head. She looks at the other humans and sees also most the same features but had hair on top of his head. That second human had black hair on both his face and on top of the head. Other than the legs and numbers of fingers – Quarians have only three—and toes – Quarians only had two—but humans looked remarkably like her people. '_Their hair, I always though Quarians were the only ones who had hair, guess I was wrong. The second one kind of cut for an alien,'_ she was thinking to herself like she was in La-la Land. She then heard the first Human speak – the one that got on Wrex.

"Hey rookie, got the data or what," the second Human asked very impatiently. _'Cute but rude,_' she though somewhat annoyed. She didn't know if she could trust these strangers, but considering her luck so far she would take her chances. The Human seemed more restless the longer Tali didn't give him an answer. "Well? Do you have it or not?!" The human was very forcefully. Tali took a step back, surprised, by his unprovoked hostility, and looked at him wearily. Then again maybe she was safer with Saren's mean. Much safer…

"John, just calm down and let me do the talking," Shepard looked at the first Human and nodded his head. The second human then looks at the Quarian and gives a big smile, "I'm Ragan Shepard, cousin of this impatient kuso yarō. We request the data you have on your personnel because it will help solve a crime."

"I do have it but what's it to you," Tali wanted to know what the commander would put up on the table.

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kuso yarō means Bastard in Japanese. Proper way of writing kuso yarō is this: クソ野郎.


	3. Chapter 2: The Quarian's Proof

Chapter 2: The Quarian's Proof

"Well? Do you have it or not?!" Shepard said more forcefully. Tali took a step back, surprised by his unprovoked attitude, and looked at him wearily. '_Great it look like I scared her,_' he thought. Shepard wasn't what you would call the nicest person in the galaxy; far from it he would admit, the events in his life was a testament to that. His motto in life was that life was shit sandwich no matter who you were, and if you had nicer life well you just had a better shit sandwich. '_Even since the mission on Eden Prime, it has been a pain in the was after pain in the ass; being kicked out the running for the Spectres, because one of the who was scouting him was killed by the fucking traitor Saren, the visions from the fucking beacon, everything's gone to hell, so exuse me if I don't play fucking nice,_' he thought bitterly. Which was completely true at this time.

"Well don't you understand English? Give me the damn data, we don't have all day," Shepard said annoyed. Shepard then saw something moving behind the Quarian, and without thinking pulled out his M-77 Paladin. Tali were preparing her shotgun, until he fired at the merc that was behind her. Tali looked behind her and saw the merc drop to the floor, into a puddle of his own green blood. The merc was a Salarian.

"Fucking idiots just don't know when to stay down…," Shepard was getting annoyed. Tali glared at him, and Shepard saw heated glare, if he was lesser man he would have pissed his pants, instead he shrugged it off. "What?"

"Keelah, you couldn't have warned me first you bosh'tet," she said angrily. "You almost hit me!" Shepard just rolled his eyes.

"But I didn't," he said calmly. "Besides, you were too slow. Now the data, rookie," Tali just crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him, he had to give the girl credit, she wasn't scared of him at all. '_Fuck, fine I'll play your game, only to get this over with,_' he thought. "My name is Commander John Ryu Shepard; you have data to go after a Spectre, a traitor, the same one that sent these numb nuts after you," he said calmly. No reaction from her. '_Damn this girl is impossible._'

Garrus then spoke up. "Um, Commander, maybe we could finish this at the Human Embassy, if that okay Tali," Garrus was calm when he said that. '_Finally a plan,_' Shepard thought.

"The Presidium, let's go. Unless the rookie has other plans," John said_._ The odd group made their way to the Presidium, although they had to endure the painfully slow elevator ride. '_A galactic civilization thousands of years old and yet we can't get an elevator that goes fucking fast enough,_' he thought. John gazed at his five companions, Garrus Vakarian – a turian C-Sec officer, he seemed trustworthy enough. '_He wants to go after Saren, almost as much as me, rash, impatient, basically a turian version of me, as if Kaiden has enough headache with me around,_' he though with a smirk.

Urdnot Wrex, the krogan mercenary or bounty hunter this time, violent like all Krogan, but there was a spark of wisdom about him. '_Exactly how old is he? He seems to know a lot, maybe I could get him to talk, could be fun,_' then he turned his attention to Tali, aka 'rookie', the Quarian he just rescued, they didn't get off to a good start. He started to look at her features, well lack of features as she had that suit and helmet. '_She's kinda cute, in a difficult, mouthy way, although the way she mouth offed to Wrex was kinda badass,_' he though smiling. He could stop staring at the girl, although he wouldn't admit it he liked how she stood up to him, most were too spineless to stand up to him, except his best friend Kaiden Alenko. '_Nice tits and ass, a petite, but toned body, my type of woman, like Emi,_' as soon as he thought of Emi, his old girlfriend, he thought of Mindoir, and his smile disappeared. '_I should have died with them, it's not fair._' Then he looked at Ragan Shepard, tough man that had a lot of problems with his breathing. Ragan was wearing a breathing mask because of the pain he had from a Cerberus project that went wrong: Project Titan. Ragan was fused with Titan that made him like a living tank but it had dire consequences. Lungs were being dry and sometimes he would have a hard time breathing without the mask when they had him in the med-bay on the Normandy. John was glad that he saved Ragan on Eden Prime before the Prothean beacon took John by surprised.

They made it to the Human Embassy and met up with two men. '_And now to talk to my favorite people,_' he though annoyed. Two men, one was an African in an Alliance uniform, and the other man white skinned in a fancy suit, were waiting for good news.

"Welcome back, Shepard. I hope you didn't cause too much trouble," the dark-skinned man said. Captain David Anderson, captain of the ship, The SSV Normandy SR-1, an honorable man, that John had deep respect for, he had taken him in after he was close to death on Mindoir when he was sixteen, John saw him as a father figure and joined the Alliance out of thanks for saving his life. John gave a sharp salute.

"Well I tried, Anderson, but you know mercs, all brawn and no brains," John jokingly. Anderson chuckled a little although the other man didn't consider it funny.

"I hardly find this funny, Shepard, gunfights in the Wards and Chora's Den? What were you thinking you idiot?" You could have jeopardized my…," The white-skinned man was interrupted by Ragan.

"Is that all you give a fuck about you fucking politic," Ragan grabs the man by the collar. "You shouldn't be like that. Because that woman, was in danger. And you are saying that you are worried about your politic position. No wonder why I hate you Udina. All you care about is your position and nothing for any of the species out there," Ragan lets go of Udina's collar and shakes his head.

Udina then looks at Tali, "A Quarian, what is this, Shepard?"

Donnel Udina, current ambassador for humanity, and all around snake. Never cared about humanity or any of the species because he only cares about his position like any other corrupted politic. John and Ragan both hated politicians; they saw them in the same light as corporations, underhanded bastards that would stab their mothers in the back if they could get ahead. John, however, had out right venom for this man, because he was responsible for the Alliance's slow response to Mindoir. '_If it wasn't for you, my family and Emi would still be alive,_' he though angrily. He gritted his teeth, he wanted very much hit him, but stayed calm.

"And it's your fucking fault that you had Mindoir go off the map while Batarian slavers attacked it. Guess what Udina, you can go to hell for that. You're fucking lucky that both, Shepard twins made it off that planet. Next time you do something like that Udina, I will make sure that you don't get voted in. We need someone that will care about people, not their fucking selves," Ragan was so angered at Udina, who was cowering in his own place. Ragan just made Udina shake in place with fear in his eyes.

"Yes, because I so care about your position, I'm going to help you get reelected," John said sarcastically barely containing his venom. "I got the job done, get off my back," Udina was about to complain about John's attitude, but Anderson beat him to the punch.

"Commander," he simply said sternly.

"Sorry Ambassador," John said with barely consoled contempt. John nodded and Tali showed her evidence to the group. She plays an audio file that clearly exposes Saren as the person who attacked Eden Prime. She plays another voice that says something about Reapers, but no one recognized it but Ragan.

"That voice from a Matriarch, Matriarch Benezia," Ragan knew the voice but wasn't entirely sure of it. Course it could have been something else like a video log got hacked and someone edited it.

Tali explained that the Geth revere the Reapers as gods and they existed and wiped out the Protheans 50,000 years ago. However something about the Reapers clicked with John, but he shook his head he'll deal with it later. Udina runs out of the room all too eager to show the evidence to the Council.

"We got the bastard, the council has to listen now," Garrus said with excitement. John agreed and looked at Tali, he was impressed and he was hard to impress, she did what the Alliance failed multiple times trying. Garrus, Ragan and Wrex had impressed him with their fighting skills, Tali with her intelligence, he knew what to do.

"Rookie, how would you like to join our crew?"

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**Author's Note: I have decided to bring out ME2 and ME3 weapons to this story because they were being made at the time. Plus the weapons in ME1 will have model numbers (Example M-34 Raikou because the Raikou is just a name so I decided to add a random M-#)**


	4. Chapter 3: History in the Making

Chapter 3: History in the Making

Tali couldn't believe her ears, John asked her to become a member of his crew. She thought she had a fever and might be hearing things, Quarians were seen vermin by the rest of the galaxy as a whole, but to join a crew, to become an equal among races other than her people, how could she not take it? '_Maybe I was wrong about him,_' she thought.

"Well, what's your answer? I haven't got all day, rookie," John said annoyed. Ragan looks at him and puts a finger at his neck and starts making it look like he had a knife going across it. And that was the only downside, John's attitude; he really was the rudest person she had even met. '_If he is like this all the time, then this is going to be a long trip,_' she thought grimly.

"That will happen if you keep on, boy," Ragan then walked to the door and left the room.

"My answer is yes, though could be more polite about it," Tali said annoyed. John just snorted.

"Why? It's not like it's going to be a picnic, rookie," John said. '_If that bosh'tet call me rookie one more time…_'

Her thoughts were interrupted by Anderson's voice. "If you two are quite done, we need to get this to the council," Anderson said half amused. Tali started to stiffen up. '_The council? That means going up to the Citadel Tower,_' she would get to see the galaxy's elite, the same elite that abandoned her people, when they asked them for help against the Geth about five years ago.

The group walked to the Citadel Tower, though the walk wasn't exactly an enjoyable one, as people was given strange looks to the group, Tali had to admit, they were a strange group, three humans – John, Anderson, and Ragan – with a turian C-Sec officer, a Krogan Bounty Hunter, and a Quarian Engineer. The people especially gave hard stares to her, the so-called vagrant; the trash of the galaxy. '_We made one mistake, one, and they're quick to turn us into pariahs, the galaxy leaders what a joke._' She though with a scoff. She had then heard something from John.

"You okay? Rookie," John asked with a worried voice. Tali look at him blankly; she wasn't expecting to hear concern from him, she even forgot he called her rookie again.

"Why do you care," she asked with no remorse about it.

"Look, I know I was a jerk to you, but I'm trying here, at least give me that," the Commander was right about to say something else but shut his mouth up.

Tali just sighed. "Three hundred years ago, before the Geth rebelled, we had an embassy on the Citadel, in fact, we were very close to getting a seat on the council, because of the Geth, funny how things change," she said sadly. To her surprise, John put his hands on her shoulders, she looked at him, his face had a look of compassion, the first time she's seen something like that from him since the time she got saved earlier today.

"If your people are as stubborn as you, then they'll be fine. Besides, after we take down Saren, your people will be seen in a new light, just don't give up," he tried to get her to understand that not everything happens because of what one mistake does. Tali felt her cheeks heat up, since they met they haven't exactly been civil with each other, but the fact he tried to cheer her up made her feel better. Maybe he was better than he let on.

"Thanks Shepard, although, you are still a bosh'tet," she said smiling. John gave a soft chuckle.

"You're welcome, and FYI you still a rookie," he said with a smirk. '_Maybe this won't be so bad after all,_' she though with a quiet giggle. The group made it to the Citadel Tower.

Tali hated to admit it, but the Tower was an awe-inspiring, simple in its design, but that didn't detract from its majesty. And there was the three councilors looking down from their pedestals like gods, Tali scoffed at the idea.

"A blatant display of wealth and power, three hundred years and the council still show their arrogance," she whispered bitterly. When John, the team and Anderson met with Udina, Tali's evidence was being played for the council. The Turian councilor reluctantly agreed the evidence is irrefutable and the council stirps Saren of his Spectre status.

"About time…"

"You got your evidence, now I demand you do something about Saren," Udina said with some venom. She had to admire the man's boldness, most races wouldn't dare talk to the council, but if they stories she's heard about Humans are true, they weren't most races. The Turian councilor glared at him, and argued he had no right to make demands of the council, it was typical to Tali, the council wasn't going to budge, even with the proof. '_Just like them to wait on their hands, wouldn't want to make to their top Spectre to look bad,_' she scoffed. All of a sudden a very pissed off Ragan took the stage. '_What does that bosh'tet think he's doing?_'

"I find that hard to believe you sons of bitches," Ragan's voice is heard. Clearly everyone looked at him with wide eyes. Not only did he make a fool out of the councils while Tali was daydreaming, he also knew proof when he heard proof. "You just want to be like that. The Turian councilor will not be do that because then that will make him be barefaced. And if an Asari and the Salarian took their own race away from a Spectre, then the governments would go against them. But I say, I don't care if they do that. Saren is a fucking traitor and he needs to be dealt with. I say we have him striped of his status and have someone go after him." Then a pissed off John took the stage.

"You know for leaders, you guys seem to be quick to stick your head up your asses, and call it done," John was right about. "I thought the Council was the elite of the galaxy, not a bunch of cowards," The council looked at him angrily.

Even though she thought John was right, she was still taken aback at how quickly he was willing to disrespect the higher-ups with Ragan. '_Keelah, he wouldn't never make it in the Migrant Fleet,_' she though shocked. The Turian Councilor began to speak.

"You seem to forget your place Shepard," he said with contempt. John just rolled his eyes.

"And seem to forgot how to do your FUCKING job, so what else is new," The councilor looked at him with venom.

"Listen here you insolent…," before he could finish John interrupted him.

"No you listen, I don't give a fuck if he is your best tool, he's a threat to my people, it you don't take action we will," He said defiantly. Ragan got behind him and grabs his sidearm, M-3 Predator. The Chamber was dead silent, stunned at John's boldness, he had just threatened to go after Saren without the council's permission. Tali shook her head in disbelief, '_That bosh'tet is going to ruin everything for his people._' She was wondering how this idiot of a man got the rank he did, he was rash and reckless in both words and actions, and may have ruined his people's chance to get justice for one of their human colonies. But then she heard something surprising.

"Commander Johnathan Ryu Shepard, Sergeant Ragan Kaiba Shepard. Step forward," The Asari councilor said calmly. The Turian and Salarian councilor looked at her with surprised. The Turian councilor spoke out.

"No! It's too soon. Humanity is not ready for the responsibilities that come with joining the Spectres, that outburst proves it," he said with venom.

"That outburst proved that they will do whatever they want without doing anything for the council," Udina said with a big toothy grin. "They are ready."

John just smirked. "Look at it this way, you don't have to send a fleet into the Traverse, and Udina gets his Human Spectre and a pat on the head for being a good lapdog," John countered what the Turian councilor said and made it sound like it was a good idea, "Everybody's happy." The Salarian and Asari both turned to their Turian colleague seeing if he would argue. After a long moment he reluctantly accepted the decision. The trio placed their votes into their terminals and returned their attention to both humans they called.

"It is the decision for the Council that you – Johnathan and Ragan – be granted all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel," the Asari announcer in her ever level voice.

"Spectres are not trained but chosen. Individuals forget in the fires of service and battle, those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file," the Salarian said, finally speaking for the first time.

"Spectres are an ideal, a symbol." The Asari looks at the Turian and resumes, "The embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will."

The turian growled, obviously not happy, "Spectres bear a great burden. They are protectors of galactic peace, both our first and last line of defense. The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold." Tali blinked, she could not believe it, most people would have been thrown out of the Chambers for antagonizing the council, but, they were rewarding him for it, by making them Spectres. The first two Human Spectres.

"You are both the first Human Spectres. This is a great accomplishment for you and your entire species," the Asari finished. Both Shepards looked back at Tali, and gave a cocky smirk. '_Keelah, who or what are this men?_' She then knew she wanted to learn more about them both. But mainly John.


	5. Chapter 4: The Normandy

Chapter 4: The Normandy

'_Well this is unexpected, lady luck must be smiling at me,_' John thought with a grin. The council just made him a Spectre to chase after Saren, apparently being an asshole at time did work to his favor once. Ragan was the same way. '_I guess lady luck is watching both of us._' Anderson came up to the new Spectres and shook his hand. "Congratulations. You did well, although we are going to have a serious talk about superiors," Anderson said half-serious. But Ragan and John knew what he ment.

John rubbed the back of his head sheeplishly and chuckled nervously, "Sorry Anderson, I just couldn't stand the council's bullshit any longer, but at least we got that human Spectre. Well two of them." Udina came up to the three men, his face was beet red, and John knew he was going to hear it from him.

"Do you have any idea how lucky we were?! If it wasn't for that evidence, I don't want to even think about the blowback," Udina growled.

"Udina, you right about that," Ragan had to admit that part because he knew what would happen. Exile from Council space was the worst thing to do to an Alliance. "I am sorry about that. But it's a fucking shit sandwich." John laughed at that comment, Udina gave a smile – meant he approved of that.

John smirked, "You're a politician; I though you be used to eating shit sandwiches." Ragan slaps his face and brings the hand down to his chin.

Udina growled, "You're lucky that you are a Spectre, otherwise I would have ended your very short career. Anderson, come to my office, we will need to set everything up," Udina left still fuming at John's disrespect. John gave a smug smile; it always made him feel good to give Udina a piece of his mind.

Anderson looked at him and shook his head, "I know you're still pissed about his decision on Mindoir, but making him your enemy won't bring them back."

John sighed and nodded his head. "I know and my sister knows as well," he simply said sadly. Anderson left to go to Udina's office, leaving John with his companions, they left heading for the ship. While walking to C-Sec, John saw Garrus grinning, "Garrus, something I should know about? You seem a little too happy there."

The Turian stopped grinning and rubbed his neck, "Sorry, it just after years trying to expose Saren, finally we can go after the bastard."

Ragan raised an eyebrow, "How long have you been trying to expose him?"

Garrus cleared his through. "Six years straight," he said very proudly. Ragan and John blinked at that. '_Wow obsessed much,_' Ragan thought.

He then heard Tali laugh, "At least you're dedicated, Garrus." Garrus growled at that and narrowed his eyes at Tali.

"This isn't a joke! Saren is a threat and a disgrace of me people," Garrus trying to hold in the anger but John saw through it. John put his hand on the Turian's shoulder and gave him a stern look.

"Chill Garrus, she was just joking," Ragan said.

Tali stopped her laughing. "Sorry, didn't mean to offend you," she apologized.

Garrus shook his head, "No I'm sorry. People have said I need to lighten up," he said apologetically. '_I'll say,_' John thought.

John looked at Wrex, "Why are you still here? You already killed Fist, don't you have some jobs."

Wrex shrugged his shoulders. "You get the most fights, that's all," he said simply. "Short, simple, and to the point, I like that" he said with a smirk.

John's gaze met with Tail, "What about you, rookie? No regrets about coming with us?"

Tali crossed her arms. "Of course not, someone has to make sure your dumb luck don't get us killed," she said annoyed and also gave a hint that she was trying to get to know John more. "I mean, Keelah, Udina was right, we were lucky."

John raided his right eyebrow, "So what would have you done, hmm?" Tali was speechless, she didn't have an answer. "I thought so," John smirked.

Tali glared at him. "Oh! You arrogant bosh'tet," she huffed. The four made it to C-Sec docks, when they met up with Anderson and Udina.

"Shepard…" Anderson simply said. Something wasn't right to John and Ragan. The way Anderson was looking; they knew something was wrong. '_Great, so how am I going to explain this to Jane when I get on the Normandy and she will be waiting for me,_" John was trying to think of someway to explain it his youngest but yet twin sister – Jane was the last one to be born in the Shepard lineage. Ragan and John had known Anderson too long to not notice it.

"Sir, what's wrong," John said when he had his sixth sense come up. Which meant bad news, and usually he was right. "Garrus, Wrex, Tali, go to the ship. We'll catch up," he said seriously. Garrus and Wrex looked at each other, but went inside.

"Yes, Commander," Garrused said with a salute.

Wrex just nodded. "Shepard," he simply said.

Tali was the last one to go inside, she was worried; John had a very serious look in his eyes. And then looked at Ragan had that same type of look. This could only end badly. She looked at John one last time; Shepard gave her an assuring nod, and Ragan gave her a signal with his two fingers that she didn't know, before she went in. Both Shepards were alone with the two men, waiting for them to speak. "Commander, good news. Captain Anderson has chosen to step down as Captain of the Normandy."

John crossed his arms and glared at Udina. Ragan was popping his knuckles when he heard that. But John stopped him before speaking, "Chose or forced," he hissed. Ragan closed his eyes and gave a chuckle while shaking his head. Anderson just put his hand on John's shoulders, before he started something with the ambassador.

"This ship is yours, son," he said sadly.

John and Ragan shook their heads. "This isn't right, Udina. Anderson is the rightful commander of the Normandy, and he should be on the mission too," John said angrily. Udina had a small sliver of smirk and John narrowed his eyes, he was getting back at him for insulting him, this was his fault. "You bastard, if you're going to punish me, then punish me! But don't take it out on Anderson!"

Udina just gave a smug smirk. "What do you mean, Shepard?"

"Can it fucking political BS," Ragan was getting tired of this. "You want to punish the person, you go for the person, not someone that is outside of the loop. How would you like it that I punish you if you insulted me but instead I took it out on the council?"

"I wouldn't like that," Udina was telling the truth on that.

"Exactly. So you punish the person not the person's colleagues, family, or friends."

John glowed blue and approached him, he was going to be glad to wipe that smirk off his face. Anderson then came in front of John and looked him in the eye. "Stand down, soldier! You know this is the right call, you know the ship and the crew," He ordered with a stern voice that made John realize he was going to regret something. Anderson never got in his stern voice unless something was going to happen; which was hardly happened.

John's shoulder slumped; this was painful to him, to see a man who saved his life, his second father treated liked this, but as much as he hated what Udina did, he knew it was right call. "Now, Anderson, I have something for you to do. Now that you been assigned to me, I'll see you at my office," Udina said barely containing a smug smile. '_Fuck you, asshole,_' Ragan though angrily. Udina left leaving the three men.

Anderson sighed. "Not the way I saw my retirement," he said. John looked at him, he knew his mentor didn't like the decision any more than John and Ragan did, but he took it for the sake of his mission. John didn't fill right about doing this. And Ragan looked like he was about to go after Udina and put a bullet in his head.

John shook his head. "How can you be okay with this? This is your mission too," he said sadly.

Anderson just looked at John, "Look son, you became something that I failed at twenty years ago. You became one of the first human Spectres with your cousin. I'll see if I can get your sister to be one because she earned it. And you have the chance to do something good with it." John looked at Anderson with a concerned look, he didn't seem convinced. In fact it was hard to convince John as much as impressing him.

"I'll be find son, it's not like I'm dying, and I'll just have to learn to enjoy paperwork," Anderson said. John chuckled a little at that. Anderson walked to the elevator. "Oh, Ragan, you are not the Commanding Executive Officer of the Normandy. And John," this was the first time Anderson said John, "this is your show now, make me proud."

John and Ragan gave a sharp salute. "Yes sir," they both said in unity and proudly. Anderson smiled as the elevator ascended. John made his way to the Normandy with a new determination. "Ragan you coming?"

Ragan gave a soft deep breath, "Not now. I need to get some items."

"Okay," John walked into the Normandy, '_I promise sir, I will make this chance count._'


	6. Chapter 5: Enter Kaiden

Chapter 5: Enter Kaiden

'_Keelah…_' she thought in awe. Tali had known she was going to be on an advance ship, but this exceed even her expectations. It was so much more advanced than in the flotilla; she was like a child in a candy store. She started to bounce on her towes excitedly, a stupid habit she had a child when she found something interesting. '_This is such a dream come true, a Quarian on such an advanced ship, if only father… father…_' her thoughts trailed of her father, an admiral of the fleet, a man she had the utmost respect for no doubt, but had some resentment, that her father treated her like one of his soldiers and not like his only daughter. '_Who am I kidding? He wouldn't care; he would probably scold me for wasting so much time and say 'Take your pilgrimage serious. I'm an admiral, and there's a lot expected of you',_' she thought bitterly.

She took her pilgrimage seriously, no doubt, all Quarians did, and it was part of the overall survival of her people, but she often wish she could do the things that other races took for granted. '_Who knows? Maybe it could get better, as long as I don't give up, like John said,_' she said in her mind with a smile. "Rookie? You're still here," said a familiar voice. Tali jumped at the voice, only to see it was John.

"Bosh'tet! Don't do that," she said in surprised anger. John just sighed and shrugged his shoulders. Tali looked converned as, short of a time as she knew him, she has never seen him down, making jokes or rude comments yes, but never sad. "Shepard, what's wrong," She asked with a little worrisome.

John look blankly, "You're actually worried about me. He was surprised at that.

Tali was thankful for the mask, John couldn't see her blush, "O-of c-course… n-not! I-It's just that we need y-you for the m-mission. I'm sure Captain Anderson would agree," she was nervous.

"Brother, I need to know where Ragan is at," Jane's voice is heard over the intercom.

"Check the private engineer chief room. He stays pretty much a lot of time there."

"Thank you. Shepard out," the intercom goes off.

John looked pained. "Anderson will not be joining us, from now on the ship is now… mine," he said sadly.

'_Okay, now I know something is wrong,_' "Tell me what happened," she wanted to know because was becoming serious. John told her about how Anderson was forced to give up the Normandy and that he was now assigned to be what John calls 'Udina's Paperboy'. Tali was upset at the idea that a captain would be disrespected and replaced like that. In Quarian society the rank of captain was an honored and respected one. Maybe what was the most surprising was how angry John was about the decision, which meant he was loyal to his captain, he was very much like a Quarian. '_Maybe Shepard would fit with the flotilla, after all,'_ she though with a soft smile.

"Thanks for listening to my bitching, rookie," he gave a smile to her.

Tali once again blushed. "Anytime," she said before jokingly, "though, this is a one-time thing."

John chuckled softly at that as he left, "Noted rookie." Tali left to explore the Normandy with a huge grin on her face. As she was walking down the Normandy's CIC, Tali felt nervous. She could be bold around John, after all his personality basically demanded it, but with her new crewmates she wanted to put her best foot forward. There were multiple Humans in combat stations to both her sides as she walked, and though she remained facing straight ahead, she could literally feel the Humans staring at her. Part of her understood, most of them had never ever seen a Quarian in person, however, for some, it was glares she was all too aware of distrust and suspiction.

The looks of suspicion just embolden her, she was something of an oddity among Quarians, while most would just take the abuse; she wouldn't, though it had sometimes gotten her in trouble with others. "Look at me all you want, I'm not leaving and I won't give up," she said proudly. The Humans blinked, and stared at the girl like she was crazy and a unconformable silence fell in the CIC. '_Maybe too soon,_' she though nervously.

"Attention all crew, if you see a Quarian on board, you are required to help her. If you do not help her, then you will be docked of payment by me," Ragan's voice is heard over the intercom. "Same applies with Krogan, Turian, and anyone else that we pick up. If you have questions come to me with them. I will answer them all to the best of my knowledge. Thank you and have a good day." The intercom is cut off again.

As she was in her thoughts, she heard a voice. "All right, I'm sure that was entertaining, you all have your duties, now get back to it," he said. "You heard me and our CXO. You listen to me, the CXO, XO, and CO." It was a human male, his skin was tanned, but nowhere near as dark as Ragan's skin, and he seem to be little older than John, he came close and greeted her. "When John said we had a firecracker on board, I thought it was one of his bad jokes, but looks like he was right." He gave a smile to her.

Tali tilted her head in fofusion. "Um… John?"

The man rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Sorry, I guess he never told you his first name. I meant Shepard," he explained.

Tali's eyes widen at the realization. "Oh! Sorry, I need to get a handle of human names," she said embarrassed.

The man just chuckled. "It's alright. My name is Kaiden Alenko. Lieutenant of the Normandy, sorry if John's been a trouble for you, he has a rough personality. Just like our CXO, Ragan Shepard."

Tali giggled at that. '_That's the understatement of the year,_' she though. "Don't worry at this point I'm used of it. I'm Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Alenko," she greeted the Human.

Kaiden raised his hand. "Please just Kaiden, if I can call you Tali, if you want," he was smiling at her. '_Wow, he's a lot more polite than Shepard that for sure,_' she thought.

"Sure thing Kaiden, and I go by Tali anyway," she said.

Tali and Kaiden conversed for a while, she was surprised and how friendly he was towards her, even though she was a Quarian. '_Maybe humans are just less prejudiced, it would make sense, considering how new they were to the galaxy rules,_' she though. As she thought about Humans, her mind drifted to John, so she decided to ask Kaiden about John. "Um Kaiden, I was wondering if you could tell me about Shepard, you seem to know him very well." She said for butterflies in her stomach.

Kaiden looked hesitant, but gave her a smile. "You seem like a good person, so what the hell, and you're right I do know him well, we've known each other since our Sentinel Program days."

Tali titled her head at that. "Sentinel Program?"

Kaiden nodded. "Yeah, with the Alliance we have, six combat classes," he explained. "Based on some preliminary tests, the Alliance put's people in one of the six classes based on their abilities."

"And what is your ability," Tali asked. Kaiden smirked and grabbed a cup of water of the table; the crewmember gave a disproving look at Kaiden.

"Don't worry, you'll have it back," he said with a smile. The man grunted and went back to work, though Tali saw he was looking warily at his cup. "Now, watch," Kaiden dropped the cup of water, much of the man's and Tali's surprise, but then the cup stopped just before hitting the ground and it was surrounded by a blue light. Kaiden was a biotic; they were people who could manipulate matter with their mind, she had heard amazing things about what biotics could do in battle. The cup gently floated back to his hand and Kaiden gave the man his cup back.

"Keelah, so you're a biotic, and so is Shepard?"

Kaiden smirked, "Both twins are."

"Twins?"

"You'll see Jane Shepard. She is the youngest and last one that is related to John."

"I heard it took focus to develop biotics and John doesn't seem like the focused type," Tali said.

Kaiden chuckled. "Usually he isn't so ready for the story?" Tali nodded. "Okay, but first let's go somewhere private." Kaiden and Tali went downstairs to the crew quarters and sat at some tables. "Okay, it all started ten years ago…"


	7. Chapter 6: Kaiden and John-Sentinel Days

Chapter 6: Kaiden and John – Sentinel Days

**Ten Years Ago – Luna (Earth's Moon)**

Kiaden Alenko, age 20, was in the hanger getting ready to greet the new recruits, as a senior of the program; it was his duty to be an example to the new recruits to strive for. As the recruits, flooded the floor, Kaiden examined the new recruits, '_Good, this year's crop looks promising,_ he though with a smile. Kaiden was a serious military man though and through; he got it from his father, Charles Alenko, a veteran of the First Contact War, or Relay 314 Incident, with the turians, military was in his blood, although his mom disapproved of his decision, because she almost lost Kaiden's dad in the war. Kaiden was strange compared to the other trainees in the program; because he was one of the first biotics from the old Jump Zero program that was fitted with the faulty L2 implant. As a result, his biotics was in a class of their own, while most in the program couldn't make a simple barrier without extra training, something members of the Vangaurd and Adept could with ease, he could, putting his abilities on par with the two biotic classes.

But those abilities came at a price, chronic headaches that were at time crippling, though he learned to live with it for a while. As he looked around the hanger, he saw one recruit that caught his eye, a light-skinned with black hair. '_He's kinda cute, for a recruit,_' he though. As the young man went into place with the other recruits, Kaiden caught the man's eyes, they looked so angry, but with a hint of sadness. It was easy enough to spot, a lot kids during the Jump Zero program had them. A lot of them were broken from the beginning and the program seemed good for only breaking them more, he was glad the program was shut down. '_He must have been through a lot, you don't eye like that unless something terrible happened to you,_' he though. He decided to talk to him after introductions were done. When everyone went into place, he heard a loud booming voice. '_Oh no, they're going to sic that bastard on the recruits,_' he thought alarmed.

Sargent Jamal Yousuf aka the 'Skark of Boot Camp' was a man every trainee hated to be trained by especially Kaiden. The man reminded him of the Turian from his Jump Zero days, a man who used any means necessary get a good biotic, even if he had to break them, mind body, and soul. '_Any means necessary, even if they becomes a husk for their former selves,_' he though bitterly. He glanced at John, worried about him; he knew someone like Yousuf almost always chose the ones who were damage. '_They always do,_' he though sadly. He remembered all too well, what that Turian, Vyrnnus, did to his friend Rahna, breaking her arm, just because she wanted get a cup of water without getting a nosebleed, or his boyfriend, Aiden, brok him mentally, it was so bad that he committed suicide weeks later. The larger sergeant spoke.

"Alright, you maggots, today you will be training as a Sentinel, and I promise you it will be painful, beyond imagining," he said with a sadistic smile. He looked at the recruits, with a predatory gaze in his eyes. The recruits all looked very pale and scared, at the large man's piercing looks, Yousuf showed great pleasure at the recruit's fear, but then glanced at John. The recruit looked back unfazed and stood in front of him. "Look what we have here maggots, a real tough guy, lets show him how we welcome him," he said maliciously. The Sargent grabs the man's collar and forcefully pulled the recruit out of the lineup. Kaiden clenched his fists. '_Oh shit,_' he though.

The young recruit got off the ground and looked in the Sargent's eyes unblinking, he was not sacred. The Sargent focused on the recruit, Kaiden knew this look, he was going to use him as an example, and break him. Kaiden looked at the other instructors, hoping they would step in before it gets serious, the instructors did nothing. '_You just going to let this happen? Spineless every one of you,_' he though angrily. "Come on tough guy, show me what you got," Yousuf said while pushing him. The recruit clenched his fists, becoming very anger. "You getting angry, good I want you to let loose with your Biotics, show us you are a tough guy, and not some Batarian's bitch," he said with a cruel smirk. The recruit glared at Yousuf with murderous gaze and started to faintly glow blue, Kaiden had to step in and stop this, and it was only going to end badly.

"That's enough, this unbecoming of an instructor," Kaiden yelled. Yousuf looked at Kiaden with venom, he never liked Kiaden, and he felt he was always undermining his authority, question his methods. For years, he had tried to use his special methods on him, trying to see the limits of the Sentinel Program's prodigy, but each and every time he was forbidden. In Yousuf's mind, Kaiden was getting special treatment for longest time, Kaiden was getting arrogant, and it was time to put him in his place.

"Senior Alenko, you should speak when spoken to," Yousuf, charged his biotics, and punched Kaiden. Kaiden fell hard to the ground, but Yousuf wasn't done, walking towards him in a menacing blue glow. The other insturctors had seen enough, and came to restrain him with the help of the other trainees. Yousuf, however, was out of control and blew the instructors and trainees back, and then focused his attention back on Kaiden. '_Shit, I always knew he was a bastard, but he's really looking to kill me,_' he though alarmed. Kaidne tried to get up, but found his ribs broken. Yousuf approached Kaiden, his eyes was like that of an animal that a man. '_Shit, I got to do something._'

Out of nowhere a blue field hit Yousuf, it was John; he had just saved Kaiden's life. "So, tough guy, going to show me you're not a Batarian's bitch," he growled. Kaidne felt a sense of déjà vu; this was almost like what happened back at Jump Zero. John ran at him throwing some biotic throws at the older man, but Yousuf shrugged it off. The recruit put up a good hitting the Sargetn with more and more warp fields, but Yousuf was too much, as his biotics was much stronger. Yousuf blew him back and the recruit hit the wall hard. "Weaklings! All of you! There's no place for you in the Alliance of this life," Yousuf said becoming more unhinged. Kaiden knew what was coming, the recruit was tired, from using too much of his biotics, Yousuf was moving in for the kill. Kaiden tried to move, but his ribs were screaming in pain.

"Shit! No, Yousuf don't do it," Kaiden yelled in horror. A shot rang in their air everyone turned to the source the source of the shot. It was none other than, David Anderson and Ragan Shepard, both legends in the Alliance with their weapons. Predator and Kata Kara Mōkin Tsume. For Yousuf, '_Holy Shit, What is Anderson and Shepard doing here,_' he thought in awe. Yousuf staggered and clutched his arm and glared at Anderson. Anderson calmly gave his ultimatum, step away from the recruit or die. '_This is a no-brainer, even you're that not stupid, Yousuf,_' Kaiden thought. Yousuf, however, was not in the right mind, and instead charged at Anderson. Anderson calmly pulled the trigger to give a warning shot. But Yousuf kept charging and Ragan throws his chained kunai at Yousuf's chest.

"GET OVER HERE," Ragan yelled and pulled Yousuf in before he killed Yousuf with a quick neck break. It was over for the crazed Biotic as his neck broke in five places before part of the bones went into his brain. Yousuf dropped dead.

Anderson ran over to the recruit, he looked over him with concern. The recuit gave him a nod signaling he was okay, and then made his way over to Kaiden. "You okay," he asked. Kaiden gave him a resassuring smile, but the recruit didn't seem fooled. The medics came in minutes later, to get Kaiden and the injured to the infirmary. Before they took him off, Kaiden asked the recuirts name.

"My name is Shepard, John Ryu Shepard," he gave a smile. Kaiden took his hand and shook it, but not without giving his name.

"My name is Alekno. Kaiden Alkenko," He gave a smile. Kaiden didn't know it then, but it would be the start of a friendship and important friendship for them both of them.

"Ragan, make sure nothing bad happens to your cousin," Anderson's voice is heard.


	8. Chapter 7: Ships, Girl's Best Friend

Chapter 7: Ships, Girl's Best Friend

After Kaiden finished his story, Tali was dumbfounded, she couldn't believe a superior officer would do that to people he was responsible for. Back on the fleet, it a captain or admiral did what he did they would be exiled. Tali weren't a cruel or violent person, but to her, what Yousuf did to John and Kaiden he deserved it tenfold. "Did they know what made it snip," she asked. John came out and sighed, Tali and Kaiden jumped when they saw him. '_He must have overheard,_' she to herself nervously.

"John, so you were listening in," Kaiden asked.

John crossed his arms, "You guys were speaking so loud, how could I not," he then looked at Tali. "Especially the rookie."

Tali huffed. "I'm not that loud," she said annoyed. "Are you going to answer my question?"

"The autopsy revealed that the dumbass' system was flooded with red sand," John said calmly. Tali had heard about red sand, it was drug. Mostly used by biotics like the Asari, because it temporarily booted biotics. She had heard about the side effects of red sand, but it was physical, not mental. Tali looked at John perplexed, waiting for him to explain. But Ragan come up and beat him to it.

"Red sand is different with human, than with Asari, or other races. We don't suffer the physical effects, because our immune systems, but it causes increased aggression, paranoia, and through extended use, psychosis, which is why it is illegal to sell red sand to humans in Citadel Space," Ragan explained. '_It makes since, sonsidering humans have third strongest immune system after vorcha and Krogan, they're so lucky they don't have to die from a small scratch,_' Tali thought sadly. John interrupted her thoughts.

"Hackett called, he wants us to look for a mission recon team in the Sparta System," he said while leaving.

"Wait, what about Saren," Tali asked.

John looked back, "Hackett said we'll get info when they know something, for now just stand by." John left Tali and Kaiden.

Kaiden shrugged his shoulders. "I guess we'll relax until then, you may want to check with the Gunnery Chief and Jane for your weapons equipment," he said also leaving.

Tali grabbed his arms. "Kaiden, where is engineering? I really want to work on this ship's engines."

Kaiden chucked, "It's on the way to the Gunnery Chief, just go behind the elevator and you're there, just remember you have to take the elevator first." He said waving goodbye. Tali went on her way exploring the ship as went to the chief. She was really amazed, at the ship; it was marvel in not just, beauty, but its technology. '_I can't wait to dive inot the systems; I hope this Gunnery Chief is a fast talker with John's sister,_' she though excitedly. Before going down, she checked in the resident medic, Doctor Karin Chakwas for a check-up. '_Better safe than sorry, something tells me I will be seeing her lot often,_' she was pleasantly surprised at the amount of knowledge, the good doctor showed, about Quarian physiology. '_Considering how similar Quarians and Humans are, it shouldn't be surprised._'

Tali met the Gunnery Chief, Ashley Williams, and John's Sister, Commander Jane Kasumi Shepard, she knew Humans were bigger than Quarians, but Williams' size was downright intimating to the young engineer. "Hello Chieft Williams, I'm here about my weapons and equipment," she greeted. The human looked at Tali, but show her the equipment and weapons and how to use some of the Human equipment. Ashley was difficult at first, but eventually she warmed up to the young Quarian. Tali liked her, she was a strong woman, but she had sinking feeling that she didn't like aliens as was looking over the Turian and Krogan, she was suspicious of Wrex and Garrus. '_She seems to be a little prejudiced like the other humans, but hers seems forced, like it was personal, I wonder what happened with her,_' she thought. She hoped John would help her. She waved goodbye to Ashley, and she nodded in response. She made her way to engineering.

"You know Ash, you don't have to hate her or the others," Tali heard Jane's voice.

"Wow, this is… Wow," was all she could say. Tali's jaw dropped when she saw the absolutely colossal drive of the Normandy. '_Keelah! How is it possible that such a large drive core can fit in a ship this small, the power draw must must crazy,_' Tali thought to herself as she quickly walked over to the railing at the end of the room to get a closer look at it. "This is amazing! I've never seen a drive core like this," Tali eagerly exclaimed looking over the details of the drive core, "I had no idea Alliance ships were so advanced!" Tali was glad for the mask, it would be hard to explain her drooling over the core. "I must know how this work, I won't be able to sleep if I don't," she said excitably bouncing on her toes.

"The Tantalus drive generates mass concentrations that the Normandy 'falls into', allowing her to move without the use of heat-emitting thrusters. The core not only makes the Normandy quiet and fast, but means she can run at FTL speeds for longer before having to discharge to the drive," a voice said from behind. Tali jumped and turned around, it was an older Human. '_Must be chief engineer,_' she thought. The Human smiled and extended his hand. '_Human hands look so strange. How do they keep track of all the fingers? Evolution is weird,_' she through the Human's shook his hand, it wasn't a common gesture in Quarian culture, so seemed strange, but she thought to make a good impression. "The name is Greg Adams, Chief Engineer of the Normandy. After Ragan was promoted to Commanding Executive Officer. And you are," he greeted.

"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, but please just Tali," she said. "If it's okay, I would like to work with you down here."

Adams raised a brow, "You any good? I don't just let anyone work on this baby," he said. Tali just smirked as her chest puffed out proudly, if there was one thing she was sure about it was her engineering skills, all Quarians were required to work on engines of the fleet ships, but with her she was the best, even among her people.

"Give me some scrap metal, a circuit board, and some element zero, and I'll have it dancing and making precision jumps," she said with pride. Adams whistled and pulls up a terminal for her to prove it. Tali soon got work, after a little over two hours, she stepped away and let Adams check her work. Adams blinked, he couldn't believe his eyes; the board was reading fifty percent improvements across. "Well," she said excitedly bouncing on her toes.

"I have to say, it's looking damned impressive, if Shepard or Ragan okays it, then you get the job." He said smiling before adding, "Well speak of the devil," Ragan came in and greeted Adams. Behind him was John. She had to admite, John's pet name for her was starting to grow on her, although, she wasn't going to give up getting him to say her name full-time. "Hey, Shepard, Ragan. Amazing little thing you recruited. I wish my guys were half as smart as she is! And twice as fast! You got to let me have her on my team," he said.

Ragan and John looked at Tali and smirked at her. John then broke silence, "So the rookie has other talents, besides getting shot at, good to know." He teased at it.

Tali huffed at that, '_Of course I do, you bosh'tet! He just love getting under my skin,_' she thought. She had caught herself blushing again, it was so infuriating, and why does this happen when he's around? '_He's idiotic rude bosh'tet, he says a couple of nice words, and I'm blushing like a moron. Why am I still dwelling on that,_' she shook her head waiting for answer. "Sure, why not, if she can handle that and heing on the ground team, then I have no problems." He said simply before adding, "Now get to your stations we're leaving for the Sparta System." As John left, Tali thanked him for this opportunity.

John looked back at her. "No problem, Tali," he said with a smile.

Tali blinked at that, for the first time since they met he called her by her name, "What did you call me?'

John smirked and Ragan went to his room. "Tali that is your name, right," he asked. "See you later."

Tali blushed and just waved. "Bye…"


	9. Chapter 8: Maw versus Mako

Chapter 8: Maw versus Mako

"Edolus is the terrestrial planet with an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Edolus' surface is covered by wide deserts of silicate sand, with only a few areas of igneous rock highlands to break the abrasive, dust-choked wind," Ragan's voice is heard through John's earpiece. "Edolus' orbit is congested with debris thrown inwards by the gravity of the gas giant Ontamalca. Due to high rate of meteor impacts, exploration is highly dangerous. It would also be wise to make sure that none of the debry come down because if it does, you will not only be on crushed but your body will have carbon dioxide poisoning due to the fires of the atmosphere."

"Got that Ragan. I know you are on the Normandy right now looking through our gun cameras but you don't have to tell us everything about the planet," Jane said. John looked at his younger sister and gave her a murderous look. "Okay fine, you can tell us but only certain parts that need to be told."

"Deal. Shepard out," Ragan cut the communication link towards the whole ground team – that is in the M35 Mako Tank – which consists of the ones that John wanted. Jane, Garrus, Tali, himself, Wrex, Kaiden, and Ashley.

John groaned. "Rock, rock, and more rock,' he said annoyed. The team landed on Edolus with the Mako, looking for the mission recon team per Hackett's orders. Although if it was up to John he would want to go after Saren, but until then this was the most action he was getting. "How do we know they're even alive?"

"Admiral Hackett said the team had set up a distress beacon, so maybe one or all of them lived, I'm not seeing it on the radar," Garrus was getting a bad feeling at this. Garrus places his fingers on the earpiece, "Ragan, are there any activities here?"

"Some but it is seismic. Why do you ask," Ragan didn't understand it. He was probably looking through the satellite feeds the Alliance had found and got nothing.

"I just wanted to make sure."

"Hold on. There is some activity but it is atleast sixty klicks away from your position. But be ready for anything. Before the team went silent – or so we are told – they reported some kind of monster. Don't know. I can't find anything about it."

"Okay, we will be on a watch. Jane out," Jane looked at Garrus and gave a nod.

Kaiden sighed. "So, we're doing this the hard way… Garus can you find the camp?"

Garrus nodded and worked his three fingers on the board, to look for the beacon. "Got it, lucky for us their camp is close to our location; updating nav point." John nodded and drove west to the recon team's camp and the team did some investigation. The camp had looked like it went through a tornado.

"Look like hell. Think someone attacked them," John wasn't so sure about this. He had a bad feeling like Garrus. Something didn't add up.

"Probably som mercs or pirats, but Hackett wasn't exactly clear on what happened," Kaiden stated with a little worryness. Garrus called them and John and Kaiden met with him. The Turian was crouched down; it looked like he found something.

"Tire tracks," Garrus said. "From the looks of it, it was going towards the south west area."

"Commanders, you might want to hear this. I found some instresting information. A pro-human group was last seen here about five hours ago. They are called Cerberus. They were an Alliance Black-Ops but it went rouge about five years ago. Keep your guns ready," Ragan's voice was heard over the comm link.

Kaiden frowned. "So they were attacked, but the question is…"

"By who or what," John asked. "Everyone back to the Mako." The mako made its way to the southwest area, climbing over mountains and handling other rough terrain was no problem for the Mako, the new baby in John's life. As they had gotten closer, John could see something in the horizon, it looked like smoke and smoke could only mean one thing, bad news. He hauled ass to the site, until they saw a burning M29 Grizzly, several dead marines, and a transmitter.

"Kaiden, on guns. Garrus, radar." John ordered. "Whatever did this is still out there. Kaiden and Garrus nodded and prep themselves for a possible sneak attack. John cautiously drove to the beacon, until the ground started to shake. And the ground grew calm again, much to the relief of the team.

"Earthquake," Kaiden asked.

Garrus shook his head, "Can't be, I wasn't reading any seismic activity, too small." All of a sudden the ground shook again, this time stronger than last time. The Mako was rocked as the tank was sent flying in the air. John activated the thrusters to gain some control back, the Mako flipped into the air and luckily on its wheels.

"What the hell was that," John didn't think of anything but that. It was on enigma after another.

"I don't know, but it just took out thirty present of our shileds," Kaiden said while trying to recharge the shields.

"I think I know what happened. Something big must have attacked and you know what I mean John. You survived Akzure. You know what it could be," Ragan was talking through the comm link.

"There is only one creature I can think of that can flip a six ton tank like that," Garrus was paled and said nervously. "Shepard, we need to move now! I think we just drove on…" Another rumble happen and to their side a large worm-like creature and it looked hungry.

"A Thresher Maw nest!" Wrex's voice is heard. Thresher Maws were subterranean carnivores that spend their entire lives eating or searching for something to eat. They are enormous, violent creatures that burst up from the ground without warning when disturbed. The maw looked at them and spit out a greyish-green fluid from its mouth. Without thinking, John pressed a button and activated the thrusters, allowing the Mako to jump over the projectile. Jane quickly pressed a button to activate a grappling hook allowing them to swing away from the Thresher Maw. When the fluid landed, it dissolved a large boulder like it was nothing.

"Shit! Acid," John stepped on it and the Mako ran away from the maw before it could spit more acid at them. Kaiden activated the guns, aim for the maw and fired. But the maw disappeared into ground.

"Keep moving! The maw could be anywhere," Garrus was barking out. Sure enough the Turian was right and the maw breached, almost hitting the tank. John couldn't afford to get hit a second time, and as the maw spit its acid out, John drove like a crazy to make sure they don't get hit. Kaiden gave up on the small guns, it was bouncing off the maw like it was nothing, and he switched to the main gun and targeted for the maw. Mako's cannon fired and hit the maw dead on, the worm like creature let out a huge piercing cry and went after them harder this time. Kaiden continued to pepper the maw hard with the cannon, until eventually the screech of the maw was no more.

The team sat there, trying to catch their breath, John had wanted some action and he gotten it tenfold. "Garrus, status report."

"No activity… I think that was the only Thresher Maw in the area… uh thank the Spirits," Garrus said tiredly. John drove the Mako to the beacon and the dead soldiers. But something in his gut said that something was not right.

"John," John looked at Kaiden and walked over to him. "This beacon wasn't theirs; look at the dirt on it, this beacon has been here for at least a month."

John frowned. "Which means they were lured by the beacon," John shook his head. "Let's shut down this beacon and contact Hackett, he needs to hear this." Garrus shut down the beacon and went back to the Mako, to wait for the Normandy.

"Normandy to ground team. Anything wrong," Joker's voice is heard.

"Nothing wrong. Need pick up. There might be more Thresher Maws."

"Copy that. Coming in. ETA five minutes."

Later on the ship, John made his report to Admiral Hackett, to say he was disturbed by this was an understatement. Hackett pinched his bridge of his nose. "So a Thresher Maw kill them. Kohoku is not going to be happy by this, he's like a father to his men."

"What about the beacon? It reeks of foul play," Shepard told him.

"Alliance Command is already starting its investigation. Ragan might be right about the whole Cerberus thing. Though, whoever did this, made sure their tracks were covered. We shouldn't turn up anything for a while."

The commander frowned a little, it was the kind of answer he expected from Hackett, he respected Hackett, not as much as Anderson, but close. He got stuff done, although, something felt like Hackett knew more than he was letting on. So he just sighed, "Okay, any info on Saren?"

"Udina and Anderson are working on a lead, dealing with Saren's partner Matriarch Benezia. Ragan must have been right about that," Hackett said. "I'll contact you with any info I get from them, until then The Alliance would like your help again."

John crossed his arms, "What? Am I the Alliance errand boy, now?"

"No, you're a Spectre, an agent of the Citadel Council, however you were human and with the Alliance before that, don't forget that. Same goes with Ragan whenever you see him, pass that message to him."

John groaned and scratched his head, "Going to pull that, huh? Okay, what is it?" The screen changed and John frowned at the data presented to him. "Hackett, this is…"

"Yes, Major Kyle, your Commanding Officer from Torfan, has set up a small compound in the Hawking Era Cluster. He's attracted a number of biotic followers. He's been an outspoken critic of the Alliance and we think he's mentally unstable… this is the trouble Shepard."

John didn't like the sound of that, it sounded like a little too close to an assassination mission. But before he could speak Hackett continued, "If you need proof of why you should do this, read more into the data that is all. Hackett out." John downloaded the data into his omni-tool and went to his room. He sat down in his chair and opened the data. Two Alliance negotiators were sent to speak with Kyle and convince him to receive treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD, but Kyle decided they were a threat and they were killed by members of the commune. Hover the commune is in fact a cult, with biotics referring to him as 'Father Kyle.' According to the data, Kyle never a biotic himself, was likely seen by the cultists as a protector, and through 'protecting' them, Kyle was able to lessen his guild over the events of Torfan.

John sighed. "Goddamn it…" John then opened his comm, "Joker, get us to the Hawking Era Cluster."

"Got it Commander. ETA: 6 hours."


	10. Chapter 9: The Major and the Butcher

Chapter 9: The Major and the Butcher

Shepard was in the crew deck at his locker, getting ready for the possible chance of putting down his former CO, as he gotten ready, he couldn't get the memories of Torfan out of his head.

_"Shepard, what the hell were you thinking? You almost jeopardized the mission for a girl?"_

_"She's not just a girl, my sister!"_

_"What about you? Come with us."_

_"Are you willing to die to save your sister?"_

_"Yes I am, I won't let her go through that hell again."_

_"Then, go, I'll hold them off."_

_"Johnny…"_

_"Don't worry, we'll be…"_

_"K-Kyoko, please stay with me… No no no no no no. w-we were supposed to be a family again. Please sis open your eyes, PLEASE! Don't leave me with Jane."_

_"Give up, Human."_

_"Die"_

"Shepard," his thoughts were interrupted by a voice, Shepard looked back and saw Tali and Ragan with a shotgun in tow. "Ready to go."

Shepard went back to equipping himself, "You're not coming."

"What? Why?"

"Both of you need to know this is Alliance Business. Sure Ragan is with the Alliance but I'm not placing him in danger." A lame excuse from John's mouth. Considering his last mission. But for some reason he couldn't bear to let her see, his shame, and Torfan was his greatest shame. Tali didn't seem convinced about his excuse, either. And Ragan just walked back to the comm room.

Tali crossed her arms. "That last mission was Alliance business and we went with you," she said. "So what's the real reason?" John ignored her and went to the elevator to get ready for the mission, he was about to get on it, until Tali grabbed his arm. "Shepard, do you trust me?"

"This isn't a matter of trust, this is personal, so drop it," Tali let him go, taken aback by how he's acting. John would regret what he said, but not now, now he had to focus on Kyle. He went down to the lower deck and met up with Kaiden, Jane, and Ashley, who were ready for the mission. "Move out."

"Yes sir," the trio said.

"Presrop is the moon of Klendagon. It is a frigid, barren world, with an extremely thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide and ethane. The crust contains plentiful deposits of heavy metal. The Alliance has opened bidding for the moon's mineral rights, but exploration will be complicated by the system proximity to the 'Five Kiloparsec Ring' around the galactic core. The Ring is an area of intense star formation, and too dangerous to safely travel. Presrop's landscape is a nightmare jagged, overlapping ridges and geological shock zones created by some ancient disaster. This has not deterred a generation of illegal 'wildcat miners' from attempted to exploit the moon's minerals riches. Unfortunately, many have lost their lives due to carbon dioxide becoming carbon monoxide in ten to twenty minutes of the minerals are released," Ragan was explain that the planet was dangerous no matter what you do over the comm link."

"John, approaching the compound…" Kaiden said. John nodded and parked the Mako beside the compound. The team got out of the Mako and walked over to the building. "Any orders?"

"Don't start shooting until we've exhausted all plans," John was ready for it. "The Major, needs help, not a squad pounding on his door." Ashley and Jane looked at John, usually the Spectre was all gung ho with marching into battle; to see him so careful… there was more to this.

"John, forgive me if this is too personal, but who is Major Kyle to you," Jane asked. Kaiden looked at John worriedly, he knew Torfan was a tender spot for him, but surprisingly just sighed.

"Kyle was my CO on Torfan, things went bad there, and he was never the same," a soft voice came out of John's mouth. "He's my responsibility…" They made it to the door and pressed the intercom, the voice that came out was distrustful and almost held venom for the team.

"This is a private sanctuary, outsiders are not welcomed here," the voice said, "Especially the Alliance."

"I'm here to speak with Major Kyle, it's important," John was waiting for them.

"There is no Major Kyle, only Father Kyle, Alliance Dogs!"

"Look my name is Johnathan Ryu Shepard, I served with him on Torfan; Father Kyle will know me." There was silence on the comm. John hoped that he didn't mess up by dropping his name. Then the comm came to life and the man spoke once more.

"Father Kyle will speak with you, but he wants you alone…"

"I don't think so. You don't tell a Spectre what to do. Allow my companions in or I will bring the Normandy in and bomb your fucking asses."

"Very well, you may enter. All of you."

"Come in, and if you try to harm Father Kyle, you will die." John nodded and entered the stronghold with his team; all four of them had nervous look on their faces. Once inside, John found himself very cautious around the cultists, as Kyle's followers' eyes followed him everywhere, one wrong move and he could stir up a hornet's nest. He walked to the back of the base and the door opened. Jane, Kaiden and Ashley stayed behind.

There was the Major, surrounded by members of his loyal 'children' with guns pointed at him. Kyle raised his arm and the cultists lowered their weapons. John was impressed, even after all these years, he could still move people. "Leave my children, I will handle this."

One of the cultists looked at Kyle, "Are you sure Father?" Kyle nodded and the cultists hesitantly left the room, never taking their eyes off of John. It was just John and Kyle when the doors closed. Kyle looked at John and his face twisted into the most uncomfortable frown.

"It's been a long time John, or would you rather go by your other name, Butcher of Torfan," John flinched at the name; he did not like it then or now. "Why are you here? Why can't the Alliance leave us alone?"

John shook his head. "You know why I'm here, Major, you killed two Alliance personnel. The Alliance wants the heads of you and your children; I'm the only thing standing between a big ass raids on this place…"

"You don't understand John! They had to die, they spoke of blasphemy! They wanted me to leave, to abandon my home and family." John aback at how unhinged his voice had gotten. It was far cry from the strong voice he had when John was under his command.

"Major, this has gotten out of hand! The Alliance sent me in to bring you in. Can't you see your endangering your followers," John was asking Kyle to try to give up peacefully.

"Maybe… this has…," the Major shook his head. "No, this is a trick, you want to take away their father make my children helpess…"

"Major, don't you understand coming with me is the only chance you got. If I fail, the Alliance will hunt you down! You say you care about your children, then prove it… come with me and the Alliance will show mercy, I'll make sure of it promise.

"Mayben you're right… I never wanted to put my children in danger… they are innocent, pure."

"You're doing the right thing, come one."

Kyl shook his head, "Wait, let me explain to my children first, please… if they see you taking me out they will attack, give me an hour."

John nodded, "Okay, I'll trust you. I have the fifth fleet pick you up." John began to walk away, until Kyle spoke up.

"Thank you, I was wrong about you Shepard. I can see now that you were just as hunted by Torfan as I was, my peace be with you Commander."

"And to you Major," John left the compound to meet his team outside – which the decided to leave—Ashley was pacing the ground with worry. "So, who died," he joked about that. The team saw him and ran towards him.

"John, are you alright," Kaiden asked with concern. "We were getting worried."

"Is Kyle…," Jane looked at Ashley, who shut up.

"He gave up, he's talking to his followers now," John said.

"That's a surprise, I would have though he was too far gone…"

John shook his head, "No, I don't think so. I think he was looking a way out."

"So what now," Kaiden asked.

"We call the Fifth Fleet and put this whole thing behind us." John looked at the stronghold one last time before say, "Let's get back to the Normandy."

Back on the Normandy, John gave his briefing to Hackett, he was surprised to say the least at the outcome of this incident.

"I don't know how you did it, but we sent a team and Kyle's group had disbanded peacefully. We'll make sure he and his people get the help they need," Hackett was very amazed at this. "To be honest, Shepard I thought this was going to end in a bloodbath, but it seem calling you was the right thing. Congratulations on this victory, Shepard. Hackett out."

John went down to the crew deck, he was in a pretty good mood, because of his success on the mission. There he saw Tail eating some kind of tube and went to join her. "You know, that doesn't look very filling, I'm sure Garrus will share if you ask him."

"I'm find with this, thank you," John knew this standoffish behavior was because of how he was acting he knew what do to do.

"Rookie, sorry for my attitude earlier, I was an ass." Tali just went along eating her paste; she was going to make it hard for him. John groaned and rubbed his head, until he gotten an idea. "Hey rookie, tell me about your people." Tali's eyes then started to light up, and Shepard smirked. '_Bingo._'


	11. Chapter 10: Therum part 1

Chapter 10: Therum part 1

Therum, a small mining colony in the Artemis Tau cluster and to John hotter than Satan's ball, if there was a candidate for Hell on earth; Therum would be the place. '_What the hell is a Prothean Archeologist doing in a place like this,_' he though. It had been three hours since touched down on the colony, and already they had to deal with welcoming committee. Luckily, John's baby, the M35 Mako, tore through the Geth without any problem, alight both Kaiden and Tali were complaining about his driving.

"Backseat drivers… great," John muttered. The team made it to a natural blockade, and had to go on foot, much to Ragan, Tali and Kaiden's relief. "Hey, my driving wasn't that bad," he complained. Tali and Kaiden glared at him. Ragan stayed out of it. Ragan was the smart one.

"A drunken Varren could drive better than you, Shepard," Tali said close to vomiting in her helmet. Kaiden nodded his head in agreement. Ragan shook his head and grabs his sword for him back.

"Oh haha," they could tell John was annoyed.

"Maybe someone else should drive… next time," Kaiden said.

"No one drives the Mako but the CO. You got it XO," Ragan said. Kaiden looked at him.

"So what are you saying? Just because I'm the XO doesn't mean shit," Kaiden knew what Ragan was doing. Trying to make this feel like something that guilty on Kaiden.

John frowned and hugged the Mako tightly, "No one's touching my baby but me when we are on missions."

"Oh boy. He had went in a fake love," Ragan explained.

Kaiden and Tali rolled their eyes at John's love for the tank, they would never understand how much he loved riding the tank, although, even he had begrudgingly admit the Mako was a mixed blessing. It enabled him to jump the tank over obstacles and even a few rockets, a feat that would be impossible without the tank's element zero (eezo) core. It could also compensate for variation in gravity between planets, ensuring that it'd handle the same way no matter where he drove it. However the light weight made it hard as hell to control, even with years of experience. "At least you fight better than you drive," Tali teased.

John smirked at little at that. It had been close to a month since Tali and the others – Wrex, Ragan, Ashley, and Garrus – joined the Normandy crew and they were fitting quite well, expect that argument Tali had with Pressly, the former Normandy's XO, about aliens on the ship.

**Two weeks ago – UNKNOWN CLUSTER on SSV Normandy SR-1**

_"What did you say, bosh'tet," Tali was angered._

_"You don't belong here, this is a Human mission only," Pressly said. "We don't need your kind here."_

_"I'm here because of Commander John Shepard wants me here and Ragan is my proof!"_

_"How do we know you aren't sending schematics of the Normandy's technology back to your people? It's classified Alliance information!" Tali clenched her fists; it was the same no matter where she was, the so-called beggar and the thief. Pressly had been hostile to the aliens from the beginning, but most of that had been pointed to her, she ignored at first, but there only so much she could take before the hostility got under your skin._

_"Listen you bosh'tet, I am NOT a thief! I've never once stolen anything! Nothing! And I don't intend on stealing anything from the Normandy!"_

_Pressly snorted, "It's only words if you can't prove it to me." The crew was getting nervous with their argument, it something wasn't done, a fist fight would ensue. A voice rang out, and very angry voice._

_"Hey, what the fuck is going on here," Ragan asked angrily. Tali and Pressly was silent, almost afraid to say anything. Ragan was most cool with people doing their own thing, he even didn't mind crewmates fraternizing among each other, but if the peace and stability of the team's unity was threaten, he could be scarier than any geth. "Well?"_

_"Sergeant, I don't trust her, we all know about her people's reputation, plus we should do this alone," Pressly said._

_"You arrogant bosh'tet," Tali mummeted._

_"Enough, this is John's ship, meaning she stays, if you don't like it you can transfer to another ship," Ragan looked at him and Pressly saw ice cold stare in Ragan's eyes._

_Pressly sighed, "Of course Sergeant…"_

_Tali smirked until Ragan spoke up. "And since you two like wasting my fucking time arguing, you two can make up that time with latrine duty." Tali and Pressly blinked._

_"W-what?!"_

_"B-but I didn't do anything," Tali was scared about this CXO._

_"Commander John's ship, he's rules…," Ragan said with a smirk. "I would get it done now, ho and I do believe Wrex was in there not too long ago, enjoy…"_

**NOW**

That little stunt was to get Tali and Pressly working together, and it had work, unfortunately he had to deal with Tali's silent treatment for a few days. That girl was hard to handle at times, but that what made her interesting. John learned about that after Ragan told them what happened and he agreed with Ragan's motives. John then found himself blushing and then shook his head. '_What the hell was that,_' a shot rang out, snapping his attention. "Sniper, get to cover," he ordered. Kaiden, Tali, Ragan, and he scrambled to the nearest cover. The sniper fired at the group with increasing accuracy.

It was a risk; he looked around cover and counted the snipers. "Six snipers couldn't be a problem if I, Tali and Kaiden take two," John was sure his plan would work. "Ragan, you go in your tactical cloak and find a way to get to the rendezvous point." Ragan then activated his cloak and moved out.

"I'll keep in comm link," Ragan's voice was heard over the earpiece.

Kaiden and Tali nodded in agreement. "Alright, move out," John said. The three members, scrambled to different cover, Tali in the east, Kaiden in the south and John in the north. Tali sabotaged the Geth on the right to her, making the Geth's weapon overheat and explode taking his ally with it. "Nice job, rookie," John yelled as he threw two of the Geth off the ledge. Kaiden lifted his two geth opponents along with a flammable canister, and shot the canister to destroying the two geth. '_Showoff_' John though with a smirk. The trio regrouped and moved on to an opened area. It was quiet, too quiet; the group was on high alert.

"Shepard, this doesn't feel right, the geth is up to something," Kaiden was right. Most of the Geth units they fought knew they were there. John nodded in agreement and gave the order stick close. "Get down," Kaiden got alarmed by a rock that flew towards the group; Kaiden threw up a huge barrier, protecting the group. The red Geth rocket trooper was joined by more of its type and new types of geth they never seen before.

"What the hell is that," John asked, looking at Tali. Tali shrugged her shoulders as she didn't know. "Great…" he muttered before adding, "Kaiden get us to cover, we'll give fire support."

Just then, a one of the rocket troopers was flipped over a small obstacle and a dark black omni-blade was seen. All the Geth units turned around and started focusing firing on an unknown threat.

Tali and John tried to shoot the strange new geth, but they were too fast. John's next attempts against the enemy, using biotics, proved less successful as he had hoped for, however, the commander did not manage a very powerful throw that took out some snipers. A rocket trooper fired a rocket that hit and shattered Kaiden's barrier then scattered the group to the floor.

Ragan then turns off his tactical cloak and starts do hand to hand combat on all the rocket troopers. The strange Geth turned their attention and started shooting at him but failed when Ragan just does some quick evading moves followed by a back flip kick filled with biotics.

"Rookie, get to cover and hack one of those rocket troopers," John ordered. Tali got to cover and hacked the trooper turning it against its former allies, thanks to their targeting the new agile geth couldn't escape this time. Kaiden and John both lifted the new geth and Ragan – by accident – with biotics and failed to sabotage until Ragan grabs one of the units and does like a hard crater throw, not injuring himself but the unit was crippled. Ragan jumps off the unit before it exploded and taking its allies with it. "Shit, more Geth are coming, they're like cockroaches," John growled. Any hope of quick soon vanished. The Geth were slowly being killed one by one, and it was getting tedious.

Kaiden was getting worried, the battle was dragging on and they were running out of medi-gel. "Shepard, at the rate this is going…" Kaiden began, but did not get to finish. A bullet nearly got him if Ragan didn't jump in the way and got it for him. Ragan got hit by the shoulder. Kaiden immediately let himself drop to the ground to catch Ragan. "Shit," he blurted out.

"Kaiden! That's it new plan, rookie sabotage those geth, I'll use my grenades to finish them off, stand by for now. Ragan, stay down," John ordered. Tali nodded and waited for his order. John crouched down to his cousin. "Fall back and stay down in over, for now," he said with concern. Kaiden nodded and picked Ragan up over his shoulder.

"Rookie, go give them everything you got," John was confident about it. Tali widened her sabotage field and armed the program all weapons explode in their holder's hands. John finished with the coup de gráce, a grenade between two explosive crates. "I think we got them all, nice job rookie," John was happy about this.

After a quick application of medi-gel and a fresh battery pack to his shields, Ragan was able to rejoin the battle. "Must you call me rookie, I did just saved your skin after all," Tali teased. Kaiden rolled his shoulders, and stared at the two joking with each other and smiled. "What," Tali noticed Kaiden's smile.

"You two make a cute couple," Kaiden said with a smile. Both John and Tali looked at each other and blushed.

"S-shut up Kaiden, you're reading too much into this," John stuttered still blushing.

"Y-yeah, why would I be interested in Shepard? He's a rude bosh'tet," Tali was nervous. John looked at her.

"Hey, I resent that, rookie." John said almost hurt.

"Well its true," she shot back.

Kaiden smirked. "She, even your lover's quarrel is cute," he joked.

"S-shut u-up, Kaiden!" Ragan looked at John and Tali then shook his head when he heard both of their voices in unity. Then he got up.

"Kaiden, ease off. You don't that to happen to you, right?"

"No, I guess you're right about that. Sorry Commander."

Kaiden saw them walk away stiffly and smiled. As Kaiden went to catch up with John and Tali, Ragan went back to his tactical cloak and started moving ahead but a siege pulsed knocked them to their feet.

"Shit, Geth armatures. Get to cover," John ordered. The four scattered to the cover but as Tali was getting close to cover, a siege pulse nearly hits her. John then looked to see that Ragan got her there before it happened. "Damn, you're quick." The Geth attempted to fire at the Quarian again, but John threw a grenade to stun it, he went to Tali and shielded her from further attacks. Ragan then jumped up the air and did a dive attack towards one of the armatures – which failed. John got back to Kaiden and Tali run to cover.

"Take care of her," John said before standing up.

Kaiden looked at John. "John, what are you going to do," he looked at John's determined face, and his eyes went wide. "Are you crazy? You can't stop that armature alone." John ignored him and went into battle.

"You idiot," he yelled out. He then opened his comm, "Normandy, this is Kaiden, we need back up, now!"


	12. Chapter 10: Therum part 2

Chapter 10: Therum part 2

_It was dark, Tali found herself in the crowed corridors she was all familiar with; it was the Rayya, her birth ship. "Why am I back here," she asked. The ship was busy with life, just like before she left for her pilgrimage, but Tali felt very uneasy, something about this was familiar, but not the good kind. "Why does this feel so- nononono Keelah no," she said in fear. It was the day she would never forget, the day that haunted her dreams, the day she nearly lost her mother._

_It was the a Quarian's greatest fear; the sound of silence, what Tali listened to every time she tried to go to sleep on the Normandy, but unlike the Normandy, it often meant something vital machinery had broken down. The Quarians on the ship started to panic, trying to find what was wrong, but Tali knew, an air filter had broken down. The Quarians in front of her collapsed, one by one. Tali tried to run towards her mother, trying desperately to prevent it, but as she moved the woman moved farther and farther from her grasp. "Please don't leave me," she screamed._

_But a dark figure came to her mother. She looked at the figure and found out that it was Ragan that saved her mother. Tali then remember that the Alliance was trying to settle a treaty with the Quarians so that they can help the Humans. _

_It was all for naught, she couldn't save her, just like before. She feel on her knees, sobbing, just like she did six years ago when she saw her mother on the Aliera. She was then moved to another familiar place, in front of her was a Quarian male, her father. "Why? Why did you leave her when she needed you?! A Human saved her," she asked in anger. Her father was silent. "Why couldn't you be there for once when I was cradling her body?" she asked softly. Her father turned away. "Answer me," she screamed. The Quarian disappeared leaving Tali alone again crying. But she wasn't crying for a death because this tears were tears of joy to see her mother alive._

_"Get up rookie, I know you're stronger than that," said a familiar voice. It was a voice she recognized, a voice she was falling for. It was John, reaching his hand out to her._

_"Shepard…" she simply said. She was reaching for his hand, until crimson red blood spattered on her mask. Tali's eyes went wide in horror; she saw a metallic hand impale John through the heart. "NO," she screamed. John fell into her arms, blood staining her enviosuit. "Please, don't leave me… please don't leave me," she said weakly holding his body tightly. She looked up, seeing the monster that killed the man she was falling in love with. A Geth. Her people's sworn enemy, her sworn enemy. All that could be heard in the darkness was a scream of a lone Quarian._

"Tali please wake up," Kaiden was worried about her. Kaiden was trying to revive Tali after she passed out when Ragan got her to cover. To his surprise, Tali shot up screaming. "Whoa, Tali, you're alright. You're safe now," Kaiden said softly. Tali was breathing heavily, during her nightmare, everything seemed so real, '_Just a dream… it's only a dream...,_' she thought. As she calmed down, Tali asked for John and Ragan. "They're over there, the idiots actually tried to take a Geth armature by themselves," he pointed to the north.

Tali looked at blankly. "Those bosh'tets did what?! Why didn't you stop them," she was angered. Kaiden waved his hand alarmed, he told her that John ordered him to stay in cover to make sure she was safe – which she passed out due to hyperventilation – while he took the armatures with Ragan. Kaiden also told her that tried to help by calling Garrus or Jane from the Nomandy as backup. Tali was livid at John's risking his life-like for her carelessness. When she saw John, she got up and stormed over and punched him hard then punched Ragan, who felt nothing.

"YOU BOSH'TET! Don't you ever do that again! Of all the reckless –," Tali said angerly. The next move from him surprised her, he hugged her tightly. Kaiden and Jane looked at them surprised. Tali blushed, but stayed in his embrace. '_You stupid bosh'tet you're going to be the death of me, scaring me like that,'_ she though holding him tightly. They then remembered that Kaiden and Jane was there and broke the hug, looking at each other sheepishly.

John clearned his troat, "Are you okay?"

Tali blushed, "I am now." She looks at Ragan, "And thank you for saving my mother on the Rayya."

"No problem," Ragan didn't want to take credit because it made him feel like he was a tool.

The team went into the mine, once outside the team became wary of ambushes by the Geth. Inside the mine the littered with not just Human tech but old tech, some dating back millenniums. Jane crouched down to exam it, "Prothean tech, we're on the right path." It was John's choice to let Jane stay with the current team to be back-up for when Tali weren't fully one hundred percent. The group stopped at the sight of dead bodies of Humans and Asari, littered the cavern's floor, from the looks of it they didn't notice until it was too late. '_Looks like a warzone here,_' Tali was thinking it must have been brutal. The cavern also contained Geth, but they didn't seem to notice the team's presence. "John, I hate to say it, but we may be too -," Jane was interrupted by a meek voice.

"Um hello? Please help me," the tiny voice said. The group looked up and saw an Asari in a blue energy field. '_So she did survive,_' Jane thought.

"Shut it, you want alert every Geth in here," John said.

"Sorry," the Asari replied, her voice quieter. "I'm a little… look; my name is Doctor Liara T'Soni, I'm a Prothean archeologist, please help me."

"Hold it, first I want to know, whose side you are on," Ragan looked at John. He understood why John was suspicious.

"Side? I'm not on anyone side, the Geth attacked me, my team and the miners out of nowhere," Laira was shaken. The team look at each other confused. '_The Geth attacked her? She's the daughter of Saren's ally,_' Tali thought. The team spoke among one another to discuss his predicament.

"What you guys thing," John was still not sure about her.

Kaiden crossed his arms, "It could be a trap…"

"It's a pretty poor trap, I'd say. We should let her out," Tali was trying to find a way to break the blue field.

"Poor trap it is. I say we get her out. So yes, I agree with Tali'Zorah," Ragan then looked at the field. "We get her out, she helps us. A win-win situation."

"I agree with Tali, besides our Asari here seems like she would be a very bad liar," Jane said. John looked at Kaiden, who just shrugged his shoulders, it looks like they were going to release her. John looked back at Liara.

"Hang tight, we'll get you out," John was happy to help her.

"Thank the goddess," the team hushed the Asari. "Oh sorry…" The team went to find the way to get Liara out of there. As the group tried to get the Asari out they were attacked by the Geth, but thanks to an extra tech expert, the battle was quick. They found their way to a mining laser.

"Think we can use this," John asked. Tali went to look at the laser and then looked at Liara's prison; no way were they going to free any other way. She put the laser the medium setting, as not to make the mines unstable. "Rookie?"

"Shh, I'm working…" She imputed the last command and the laser turned on and fired underneath Liara's prison. Dust immediately erupted from the hit wall, pour forth every direction, obscuring everyone's vision. When the dust finally settled the laser had cleared a hole in the rock, opening a way to open the Prothean chamber. "Done."

John nodded, "Everyone in." Ragan, Kaiden and Jane nodded then went into the tunnel. John and Tali went last, "Nice one, rookie, what would we do without you?"

Tali smiled, "Give me time, I'll think of something," she joked.

John smirked, "Smartass." Tali went in and John could help but watch her as she walked in, John started to blush and shook his head and went into the tunnel. The team made their way to an elevator, which lead to the Asari. They released her from her prison, only to feel rumbling, the mine was coming down.

"These ruins are not stable," Liara said alarmed. "What did you do?"

The Asari paled. "Please tell me you didn't put the laswer on anything higher than low." The team looked at Tali.

"Uh, oops," she said.

"Shit, let's move," John said. Liara used the terminal near them and the elevator was set in motion, John used the intercom to call the Normandy. The elevator reached the top fairly quickly only to great them with an unpleasant surprise. At the edge of the top-level stood a huge, yellow-skinned Krogan, surrounded by geth. Shepard grabbed T'Soni and put her behind himself. He shouted to everybody to take cover, except there was none. They were in the opening, circular elevator platform, with nothing that could give them any sort of protection.

"So, got a plan brother," Jane asked.

"Wipe them the fuck out," John yelled.

The battle didn't last too long, the geth didn't stand a chance with four tech experts and with Liara's unexpected help the Krogan fell in no time. The group ran out at break neck pace, dodging rocks and broken equipment. Finally they reached a ramp that led outwards. They reached the exit and in front of them, waiting for them was the Normandy, ready and ready to take-off. The Normandy sped off the planet, after the whole team got in.

The group was in the airlock, exhausted. Tali looked at John and he looked back. They both blushed, because they knew they were going to have a very awkward conversation later.


	13. Chapter 11: The Williams Curse

Chapter 11: The Williams Curse

"Okay, dear, now just stay here and I'll complete your tests," Dr. Chakwas said. Liara nodded and did as she told. While she waited on Chakwas, the med-bay door open and in came John, Ragan and Jane. Liara looked over John as he talked to the doctor; the Asari hadn't much contact with Humans, and didn't know much about them. But the galactic community saw Humans stubborn, impulsive, ambitious, and violent – but not like the Krogan – people, things she could see in all three of them, but not the other one that save her. '_Maybe humans are just different._'

John then looked at her and Liara stiffened as the human walked over to her. "Y-Yes…?" John just smiled and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Relax, Liara, you're among friends," Jane said. Liara relaxed a little, despite being a brutal soldier, John had been rather kind to the asari since she came on the ship, but she wasn't really surprised the ship had a really calm atmosphere despite hunting down Sare and her mother. Liara then grew sad, '_Mother…'_

"Thank you for being kind to me but I know why you are here," she was sad in her tone. It was like she knew something that would anger everyone. "Please believe me when I say, I don't know why Benezia turned traitor, for I have not seen her for over fifty years."

Ragan went to the desk and sat in the chair. "Any idea how it could have happened? Indoctrination, a promise, a deal, anything?"

Liara shook her head. "I don't know."

John nodded, "Saw right through me, huh?" he sighed. "So back to square one, but what about you?"

"Pardon," she looked at him.

"Well, you're basically a civilian, and I'm not a big fan of endangering civilians. But there's also no guarantee, that Saren won't stop looking for you…" Liara hadn't considered that, after all she was the Prothean expert, and the Geth came specifically for her. Saren was after something that required her abduction, and plus there was her mother, Benezia. What did she hope to gain for joining Saren? What could have changed her? She needed answers, so there was only one course.

"If there is no guarantee, then I shall join you," Laira surprised them.

"Liara, you have to think about this. This is after all – for better or worse – a military operation that is run by two Spectres," Jane then looked at Ragan and signaled him to leave the room. He looks at her and gives out a soft grunt. "Fine, you can stay."

"You sure, Liara? This won't be a picnic, and plus we may run into your mother eventually," John said.

"I know, but I want to know why she joined, and maybe try to save her," Liara started to cry but Ragan got up and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I know who it feels to loss parents. So do this two," Ragan points at John and Jane.

John nodded, "Okay… you can join, but you'll be training under me, Ashley, Garrus, Jane, and Ragan. You seem to rely on your biotics only, we're going to break you out of that." Laira gulped at the way he smiled at that, despite not knowing much about Humans, she has heard rumors about how they trained their soldiers, how they break them down to be incredible fighting machines that matched to Turians in combat. But when she saw Ragan, it was different, he was ten times better than a Turian. She hoped they were just rumors.

"Shepard," Chakwas scolded.

"Which one," the three Shepards said in unity.

"Okay, John. Do stop scaring the poor girl," Chakwas scolded and the commander smirked a little.

"Don't worry, mom, it won't hurt… much…," Liara paled as Chakwas sighed, shook her head, and went back to work. "I'm kidding, Liara, it'll just be the basics, no harm, no foul, so I would suggest you rest up, cause we're starting tomorrow." Liara nodded and walked back in the cot that Chakwas let her have.

"John, while I do think it's nice of you to offer to train her, I have to ask…," Chakwas started. John looked at her, "You did ask Garrus and Ashley, right?"

"I'll do that for him. The CO needs some time alone right now," Ragan gave a smile to them.

"I should wipe that fucking Japanese smile off of you," Jane laughed when John said that. John walked out of the med-bay, but not before walking into someone, and that someone was Tali. John blushed. "R-Rookie… ah… what are you doing… here?"

Tali had gotten off the floor and looked away from him also, blushing also. "J-Just seeing Dr. Chakwas for a headache…"

"Of course dear," Chakwas went to her compartment and took out a green vial full of liquid and gave it to Tali. "This is a dextro pain relief medicine I picked up at the Citadel, just two teaspoons of this when you feel a headache and if you have any problems, you report to me and I'll check up on you."

Tali nodded while John looked at her with a concerned look on his face; he still remembered the quick safe Ragan did for her when the Geth armature shot the siege pulse. He shook his head; he would rather not think about it. "You okay… need any… help?"

"N-No… I'm fine, honest…," Tali went back to engineering, while Dr. Chakwas was chuckling a little. John looked at her with an annoyed look on his face.

"What?"

"Aw, nothing. Just you and Tali reminding me how young love can be so cute at times," John blushed and glared at her, but the doctor just smiled. Ragan and Jane were trying to hold in their laughter.

"I'm just making sure, my team is fit and able; that's all…" it was an excuse from his mouth when it came about Tali.

"Then why are you blushing," Jane asked. "I seen this happen when we were on Mindoir."

"DON'T EVER BRING THAT UP," John was mad. His eyes became like fire and his voice was like whipping a sledge dog in a race. Jane was quiet after hearing his voice. His face had gotten a lot redder and he walked to the elevator, not before heading Chakwas chuckle again. While waiting getting to the lower deck, John huffed and blushed. "Stupid Chakwas, Jane, and Ragan. It's not like that at all…" John gotten to the lower deck and found Garrus and told him about the situation, he was surprised that Liara decided to stay, but eventually agreed to help train her. Now all that was left was Ashley. The xenophobic person. He went up to the Gunnery Chief, who was talking on the comm, another young woman could be heard.

"…Oh, before I go, you're serving with Commander Jane Shepard's brother? We saw him on the news here. He's cute; better grab him while you still can, later sis," the comm link cut off.

"So I'm cute, glad to see someone has taste." Ashley paled and stiffened up, she looked back and saw John with a shit-eating grin. Ashley palmed her face.

"Tell me you didn't hear that…," she said grimly. John just smirked and Ash sighed. "Of course you did… shoot me now." John sat down beside her. "One of my sisters, Sarah, the youngest, surprised to see you sir, I would have thought you were talking to T'Soni."

"I was just up there, Liara has decided to stay with us, can't say I'm surprised though," he then places his hands behind his head. "With her mother and everything…" Ashley was about to say something, but John help up his hand. "I know, she's a civilan, the girl's determined… which is why I wanted to ask you this…"

"What is it," John could sense some tension in the Gunnery Chief's voice.

"We'll be seeing a lot of action soon, and if she's going to stay with us, she'll have to rely on a lot more than her biotics. So will you help me train her? I've asked Garrus and he's agreed to help. Jane and Ragan discussed about this and brought it to me. I agreed if she stayed and she is."

"Uh, sure… I guess…" John raised an eyebrow at the hesitation she showed at his request, she was usually go gung-ho things.

"Okay, talk. What's wrong?"

"I'll be honest; I don't exactly trust them."

"Is it because they're aliens," John saw Ash rub her neck sheepishly; he had hit the nail on the head. John had noticed that ever since the aliens came onboard, Ash had been tense not at all like the joking girl he came to know after Eden Prime. "Speak your mind, Ash. Tell me what's up. This is off the record."

Ash sighed. "I don't hate them, personally but it's just I just think we should be ready to go without them. They came here each with their own plans, I respect that, but I don't think we should count on them staying our allies." John looked at Ash; something was telling him that there was more to this, more deep and personal.

"What made you think this way," John just bluntly asked. Didn't even think about what might happen; course that is just like a Shepard, diving head first without thinking. "It doesn't sound like you've worked with aliens before."

"My family has served the Alliance since its founding, my father, my grandfather, and great-grandmother. All picked up a rifle and swore the oat the service. And no sir, I haven't, mostly ground side, garrison forces, and rotations on space stations for training." This info surprised John, he read her record just before hitting the Citadel and the first time she had a clean record, spotless even, that was more he could say about his own.

"That's odd, with your record you should be serving the main fleet. Why the crap assignments?"

Ash sighed, "Because of my family…"

"What does your family have to do with it," John wanted to know because this was on good enigma. Ash looks at him blankly, not believing what she's hearing.

"You're kidding, didn't you read my files," she was confused. "My grandfather was General Luther Williams. The commander of the Shanxi Garrison in the war."

John's eyes went wide, almost everyone had heard of the Shanxi, the first and only human colony to ever surrender to surrender to Turian forces during the First Contact War. General Williams was the one responsible for the so-called surrender, and went down in history as one of Humanities most notorious traitors, right up with Benedict Arnold; however the truth was sometime a funny thing. In reality, he had no choice, cut off from reinforcements; Williams commanded a desperate guerrilla campaign from Shanxi's surface. However, the Turain's brutal and efficient tactics made it impossible for the Human forces to make any headway. Entire city blocks were destroyed by the Turians just to exterminate small marine fire teams. Finally, Williams realized that the only way to save what was left of Shanxi's population was to surrender to the Turians.

John frowned, "You were blacklisted… And this talk about aliens…"

"Yeah… but I won't let my family's name go down like that, Grandpa deserved better," Ash was angered. "Being a Williams always meant proving your loyalty, become more patriotic than the next guy, because if you don't you'll always be looked with suspicion by your own people." She calmed down and sighed. "Now that you know, you going to kick me off the ship?"

"Hell no, what they did to your grandfather was fucked up, you deserve better," John said.

Ash blushed, "Thanks Skipper, you really don't know what this means to me, and yes I'll help with training T'Soni. Hopefully she can handle my brand of tough love."

John smiled, "No problem, Ash, see you bring and early tomorrow."


	14. Chapter 12: Darkness

Chapter 12: Darkness

It was dark on the Normandy, hours before the day team were awake and there stood John, Ragan, Jane, Ashley and Garrus bright and early and well rested. In front of them, was a very tired Asari, this was Liara's first day of training and she was on the verge of collapsing on the floor, she was simply not used to getting up this early. Liara started to wonder, if she was in over her head.

"Okay, no that everyone is here, I'll explain how this will work," Liara jumped in attention when John's voice come out. "I'll be your endurance trainer, so we'll be doing some jogging, and light exercises to build your stamina."

"I'll be your weapon trainer," Ashley was in a good mood. "You will know the ends and outs of your weapon, how to fight with different weapons and maintenance by the time I'm done, you'll be as knowledgeable about the weapons of this time – not the old fashion ones – as I am."

"I'm your evasion trainer," Jane then gave a smile, "You will be learning rolls, how to dive and everything that is required to stay alive."

"I'm your old weapons trainer," Ragan looked at them. "I will also be teaching you how to disassemble and reassemble all the old weapons we have in this Cargo Bay."

"And finally, I'll be your hand to hand instructor," Garrus said. "Sometimes you won't have your weapon and you'll be tired from using your biotics or you need to be stealthy, this is was where close combat comes in, it is your last line of defense if all options don't work. And it is also the first when it comes to swords. I will be teaching you how to do swords. Ragan has agreed to help me with that to do some advanced fighting moves with Biotics."

"You got all that, Liara? We'll be doing this a lot every morning, early," Shepard said. "When we think you're ready, you'll go on your first mission with us." Liara nodded and then training began, Ashley was the first one to go first; she taught the Asari how to shoot a pistol. At first it was hard, she never had use firearms, because of her biotics, but eventually she was getting use to the recoil. Next she studied up on how the weapons worked, however it had gotten boring because it wasn't about Protheans, which earned her some scolding from the female Human.

Next Ragan trained her how to field strip an AK-47, then disassemble and reassemble it. It was hard at first then it got easy. Until she had to do the, what Ragan called, the Super Test. Make a mistake, start all over. Liara was happy about this because unlike Ashley, Ragan would talk about the Prothean weapons and what they were based on. She finally got the hang of it and finished the Super Test in three minutes. Ragan then told her that the next weapon will be harder.

Next was Jane, she showed Liara how to roll without any problem. It was easy for her to master this but Jane was prepared for it. What Liara didn't know was that Jane had some times ready to throw. Some sport balls. About every five to seven balls thrown, Liara would have a successful roll. It was easy for her to avoid the balls after she found a way to control herself.

Next John trained her endurance, crunches, push-ups, jogging. It was easy at first, but then everything started to hurt. Another couple of minutes of the so-called light exercise she was ready to collapse. As she struggled to get off the floor, she looked at John, who didn't even look tired, she was on her back and saw Ashley not trying to laugh at her. She just became determined and was ready for the next training. However, little did she know it would be her hardest yet. Liara took a little break, and when she was done she came back in, this time in lighter work-out clothes.

"Nervous," Garrus asked while circling around her.

Liara just gulped when she was Garrus get ready and Ragan on his edge. "N-No…," she could almost hear the laughter in the Turain's voice, which ticked her off, Garrus was underestimating her. One the side, John, Jane and Ashley were looking from the sideline, which an almost amused look on their face.

"Go easy on her, Garrus," John stated. "We need her alive, not dead."

Garrus looked back and smirked. "You worry too much…" Liara took the chance and attacked and started with a punch, and the Turian just blocked it quickly and calmly. She then felt herself being lifted by the Turian, Garrus was stronger than he looked. And she found herself on the floor. She quickly got back up but was tossed again, again, again, until she was able to land one lucky punch to Garrus' face, although she was so exhausted it didn't have nearly the effect she hoped it would.

John whistled. "I think that's all for now, good work Liara." The Asari smiled tiredly and was about to collapse, but was caught by Garrus. "Garrus get her to her room." The Turian nodded and lifted her up, causing Liara to blush a little, and carried her to the elevator. She went and faced Ashley. "Thanks, Ash, get some rest." Ash smiled and went to her cot to get some rest. Jane went to the other side of the Cargo Bay and started exercising. "Ragan, you need to get some rest," he turns around and sees Ragan disassembling a Sten Mk II. John then got the same idea as Ash did and went to his room, for some rest.

"Commander, Admiral Hackett wants to speak to you, says it's urgent," Joker said over the intercom. "Commander," John stirred awake, and heard the message. He had gotten dress and went up to the comm room.

"I've received some troubling news," Hackett's hologram said. "Someone's been killing former Alliance scientists. There have been four deaths already."

John frowned, "What can you tell me?"

"All four scientists worked on a special project on Akuze years ago and it ended in a massacre. All were killed by Thresher Maws, and it was classified as a natural hazard, but the project coincides with the attack."

"That can't be a coincidence."

"You're right, there was one other person that worked on the project, a Doctor Wayne, and he may know something. Updating your galaxy map, good luck. Hackett out." Hackett's hologram vanishes.

"Sixteen years ago, the System Alliance established the first dish field on Ontarom, defying the tidal disruptions and electrical storms that periodically sweep across the planet. The facility has since grown into a crucial communications hub for the Alliance. Trade between the Alliance base and nearby Human settlements sustains planetary unity. The Alliance also trains and hires colonists to maintain the quantum communicators, further strengthening the bond between locals and military forces that use the comm stations. Although most of the communication relays serve the military, a coalition on Ontarom's has begun construction on a civilian broadcast hub. The local Alliance commander has offered to help the military's technical experts, making Ontarom a symbol of civilan and military cooperation," the M35 Mako's VI was talking over it.

"Since when did the Mako have a VI," Ragan was confused on that.

"I don't know. But it will be help full later on. Right now, we need to focus on the mission," John's was talking towards the comm link between Ragan and the Mako. Ragan once again stayed on the Normandy and was running system communications to the ground team.

"Locked and loaded," Garrus said. The Mako's cannon roared at the last merc went down. "I almost feel sorry for them."

"They came in force, we should watch out back," Kaiden said. John and Garrus nodded, the Mako was parked next to the base and got out. When they got in, they were shocked at the carnage that happened here, some of the bodies were mutilated, mostly the scientists. There were some burn marks on the floor or wall, mostly likely explosives. Garrus crouched down and checked one of the bodies.

"Someone sure doesn't like scientists…" he said. They then heard a sound of footsteps and got their weapons out. They went to the next area, and a shot rang out scattering the team to cover. Kaiden pushed one of the mercs back and overloaded the canister near the group; a sniper tried to take aim at him, but was shot in the head by Garrus' assault rifle. John threw some grenades and it took out another group of mercs. Ultimately, the battle was short; the mercs were simply no match against trained soldiers. The team went through the base and into the back, when John opened the door; they found a solider, mostly likely the leader, hold a scientist hostage. When the man saw the team, he held his gun at the scientist, their target Dr. Wayne.

"Stay back, I've got no grief with you," the soldier was waiting for the wrong move. "All I want is this bastard." Dr. Wayne looked at John with fear in his eyes, looking to him for help.

"Please help me, he's a madman, Mr. Toombs you're insane," Wayne looked at John, "You need help, and he can agree with me."

Toombs glared at him, "Shut up, it's Corporal! Corporal Toombs!" He growled like a wolf. "You don't get to lie, not today! Today it all comes out!"

"Lower your weapon and step away from the doctor, slowly," Toombs went wide eyed when he heard John's voice. "Or I will fire…"

"You fire and he dies, Commander Shepard," Toombs said.

"Toombs is crazy, please help me," Wayne was trying not to show fear. Toombs gave a chilling unhinged laugh, which gave the team the creeps. John was afraid that reason was not going to resolve this standoff.

"You think I'm afraid to die," Toombs asked. "All that matters is killing the bastards that ruined my life!"

"What did the doctor do to you," John asked and Toombs just ignored him. John tried again. "Toombs!" The Corporal looked at him.

"I was on Akuze, I saw my entire unit wiped out by Thresher Maws, but only one person made it out," John looked surprised, Admiral Hackett said there were no other survivors. He wanted to say something, but John let him continue. "The scientists, they were studying the Thresher Maw, the let them hit our squad for a watch."

Tears then started to flow from his eyes. "I was the only one who escaped after you, but then I was knocked out, when I came to, the scientists were delighted I survived," he said shakily. "Now they had a lab rat, someone who could run tests on…" The team looked at him with wide eyes, the terror Toombs must have felt; it must have overwhelmed him, so much it broke him.

"He doesn't have any proof, I demand a fair trial," John glared at the doctor; the more he pleaded the more John though he had something to do with Toombs insanity.

"This man deserved to die! For the lost years of my life, for my friends that I died," the anger was making Toombs and his blood boils. "Let me kill him!"

"No more talking…" Toombs killed Dr. Wayne, the scientist slumped to the ground in a pool of his own blood. Toombs looked at the doctor, and spoke, his voice was eerily calm. "My brothers and sisters in arms can finally rest in peace; the nightmares can finally end…" Toombs put the pistol up to his head, John tried to get to the Corporal, but he pulled the trigger and fell to the floor, with his eyes staring out at nothing.

John went to the Corporal and closed his eyes. He shook his head. "Such a waste…" he was very sad because now he was the only survivor of Akuze. "Let's go back to the Normandy," the team nodded and left the abandoned base.


	15. Chapter 13: For His Sake

Chapter 13: For His Sake

Things have awkward on the Normandy, to say the least. Ever since the hug on Therum, things have been weird between John and Tali. They've try to avoid each other and conversation becomes nothing more than mess jumbled words between the two when they do see each other. To make matters worse, the crew seemed to have notice the awkwardness between their CO and the young Quarian engineer, leading to speculations and rumors on what had happened on Therum, making them actually forget about the daughter of one of their enemies was on board of the ship and effectively part of the crew. "So exactly how long are those two are going to keep this up," Garrus said eating his rations of a Turian version of a Human cheeseburger.

Kaiden sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not surprised things are the way they are, that hug was out of the blue," he said. The hug also presented another problem, since they – Jane, himself, and Ragan – were witnesses to said hug; they were in the middle of it. And they really didn't want to be in the middle. "It's only going to get worse if they don't talk about it."

Ragan grabbed his glass of water and sips from it. He then places it down on the table. "God damn it. I just wish they would admit they were in love. I don't want them to be like the lead characters of the _King and I_ musical play."

"The what," Garrus was confused.

"_King and I_ is a Human musical that was filmed on Earth. It's about a king and a teacher that loved each other but never admitted it. Sad part was they admitted it when the king died."

Garrus came up from eating his food. "You know it's strange, I didn't think the commander was into Tali like that," he said. Ragan and Kaiden looked at Garrus and raised a brow. '_Really? Where have you been,_' Garrus tilted his head at Kaiden's look and continued. "That hug seemed to mean more than just 'I glad you're alright and more I was afraid I lost you,'" he said. Kaiden looked at him. "Jane told me." Kaiden was about to say something, but had a though about what he said. '_Hmm, could be because of that?_' Garrus looked at him. "Kaiden?"

Kaiden broke out of his thoughts and looked at him. "We need to do something about this," he said. Garrus looked at him blankly. "What?"

"What good would that do? They aren't exactly going to talk up; Tali have trust issues being a Quarian and Shepard's not the type to share what he's feeling." Kaiden considered the Turian said, he was right. Tali and John were very stubborn unless they forced the issue. '_Might as well do it, I mean we all saw it, not like it's going away,_' Kaiden and Garrus sat what seemed like a long time until Garrus spoke up. "Well for the good of the team, maybe we should try, I mean it couldn't hurt right?" The Turian said unsure. '_Hmm and maybe it could,_' Kaiden knew the wrong move could make things worse. John and Tali were friends, but for the good of the team, they had to at least try.

"Alright, I'll talk to Shepard and you talk to Tali," Kaiden said.

Garrus looked at him and stiffened. "Wait why do I have to talk to her? Why can't you," Garrus complained.

"Both of you maggots need to do something," Ragan walked to the counter and places his glass in the sink. Kaiden and Garrus looked at him like he was crazy for saying 'maggots'.

"We will… Now to answer your question Garrus, because one I know John… I mean Shepard the longest, so he trusts me and two you need to talk to Tali, think of it as an apology for her for what you said."

Kaiden didn't know if Turians could turn pale, but he could have swordn he turned white. "You heard," he asked nervously, Kaiden just grinned, it was all the Turian needed to know. Garrus sighed and threw his hands up in defeat. "Fine, I'll do it," he said. Two split up, and left Ragan in the mess hall part of the crew deck. Garrus went down to engineering and Kaiden stayed on the crew deck to talk to John. He always knew there was something between John and Tali; they joked and argue like they were a couple for years.

If they made official, he would cheer them on, but he couldn't help but feel a little jealous. He's had feelings for John for a long time, ever since John tried save him from Yousuf. But want cemented his feelings for John was one incident back on the Citadel, where Kaiden wondered into the wrong side of the Wards.

**Ten Years Ago – Citadel**

_It was break time for Kaiden and John, after doing their studies; they were off for at least a week. Anderson was nice enough, to let them use his apartment at the Citadel, Kaiden still couldn't believe that one of best friends knew Captain Anderson, a legend of the Alliance._

_"Oh fuck yeah, Anderson has a hot tub, chicks love hot tubs," John said with a smirk._

_Kaiden rolled his eyes at his friend's lecherous smirk. "You do know I don't care about that right? Gay remember?"_

_"Then let me reiterate, chicks and dudes love hot tubs," John said. He then saw Kaiden leave. "Where do you think you're going?"_

_"Study supplies; don't forget we still have to report on 'Tactics in Biotic Combat'," Kaiden said._

_John groaned. "Can't you think about anything but boot camp," he asked annoyed. "We're on vacation, you know the old saying: 'All work and no play make Kaiden a dull boy'."_

_"Cute, but I'm not dull, I'm pragmatic," Kaiden said. "You should be more serious about your work, a little more effort and you could graduate at the top of your year." He then heard no response. "John?" He then saw John asleep on his bed, Kaiden's eyes started to twitch in annoyance._

_"That son of bitch fell asleep on me," Kaiden walked out and slammed the door behind him. And when he was gone, John opened his eyes and smirked He was pretending to sleep._

_"Now that that's over, time to hit the hot tubs," John said with a smirk. Meanwhile Kaiden was walking down the Wards to find that program shop, for the study programs. He was still fuming at how lazy John can be; he knew his lectures can go on for a long time, but that just he cared about his success. 'Just because he's cute, doesn't mean he can be dumb,' he thought. However as he continuing his mental rant against John, he didn't realize that he turned the wrong corner. As he continued to walk, he bumped into something, something large, and angry._

_"Watch where the fuck you're going," Kaiden looked up and saw a huge Krogan that was having a bad day, however with Krogan he never knew. Kaiden got up and dusted himself off._

_"Sorry, I was distracted, won't happen again," he went and walked away but the Krogan got in front of him, still pissed off. "Look I apologized, no need to start a fight."_

_"Too bad you got one," the Krogan raised his fist, and Kaiden jumped out of the way. Kaiden glowed blue and threw a few warp fields, but the krogan just shrugged it off and as a bonus it pissed the Krogan off. The Krogan charged and hit the human biotic hard against the wall, dropped to the ground weaken, his vision getting blurry. The last thing he saw was the Krogan's foot about to crush him…_

_"Kaiden? Kadien! Come on, man, wake up?" Kaiden heard a voice, a familiar voice, he opened his eyes and found himself in the hospital, with John at his side. "You're okay!"_

_"Wha… what happened?" A man dressed in white came in his room._

_"You got knocked to hell, that's what happened. If it wasn't for C-Sec you would have been dead. And if it wasn't for Sergeant Ragan Shepard, the Krogan wouldn't be trailed in two days from now."_

_"Who called C-Sec and Ragan," he asked. The doctor pointed to John, he was getting worried about Kaiden being late and tracked down his omni-tool, there he saw a krogan beating up on Kaiden and called C-Sec, who called Ragan. Just as the Krogan was about to stomp on him, C-Sec arrived and arrested the Krogan and helped Kaiden get to the closest hospital they could find. John was there at his side the whole time, never moving until Kaiden woke up._

_Kaiden blushed. "Thank you, John…"_

_John smiled. "No problem, what are friends for?"_

**NOW**

After that, he even tried to ask him out during their Sentinel program days, but he turned him down and they've been friends since then. Still there were days he wished he and John could be more than friends. '_Give it up, all we will ever be is 'just friends'_,' Kaiden thought sadly. He shook his head and knocked on the door.

The door opens and John comes out. "Kaiden, what's up?"

Kaiden sighed. '_It's now or never,_' he though. "I'm here to get you to talk to Tali," he said bluntly.

John stiffened. "W-what to talk about? We… hugged," he said nervously.

Kaiden shook his head he knew John was going to be a challenge, but could tell he was going to be difficult. "Ever since that hug, you two have acted strange, and the crew's taken notice." John just rubbed his neck unsure to say. "It's about Mindoir, isn't it," Kaiden said seriously.

John looked at him and sighed. "When she almost got hit… It scared me. I mean, if Ragan wasn't there, she would have died." John looked down at the floor. "It just reminded me of my failures in life. Mindoir, Akuze, and Torfan."

Kaiden knew it, he knew a little about Mindoir, but John never talked about the other two, not even to Anderson. Tali's presence was helping him come to terms with his past, in a way he could not. '_I'm not who he needs, he needs Tali,_' he though sadly. "John? Have you tried talking to Tali about this? It's something you need to do," he asked.

"I've know that, we can't go on with the mission if we don't work this out, but I'm…" John sighed, hesitating before continuing, "… afraid."

"Why," Kaiden asked.

"I'm afraid of what she might think of me, I hate pity, I always have and what about Torfan, will she see me a monster, will she be afraid… of me," he said in fear and sadness. "I've never felt this way before. I've never been afraid to face a problem with biotics and shit. But words? It's just not me. Shit, I feel pathetic."

"You shouldn't, it just means you're Human. Plus she doesn't seem like the type to look down on weakness," Kaiden said. John looked away. Kaiden turned away and sighed. "She trusts you, John; why else would she join you? Talk to her for your sake and hers," Kaiden walked away doing the most painful think he even did, letting go the man he loved.


	16. Chapter 14: Between Shotgun & Hard Place

Chapter 14: Between a Shotgun and a Hard Place

'_Spirits, I hate this,_' Garrus though in dread. Garrus was not looking forward to this at all. He wished he could back out of this, but his damned Turian sense of honor wouldn't let him. '_Why didn't Ragan do it instead of me,_' he was doubting himself. He hated to admit it but Kaiden was wright, he had to fix this. It hadn't been loo long since that fateful elevator ride, where out of stupidity, decided to make a very stupid remark about Tali's race. He could remember as if it was yesterday. Garrus shuttered.

**Weeks before Therum**

_"The Quarian endangered the entire galaxy when they let the geth break free," Garrus casually said. "I hope your people are properly contrite, Tali."_

_Ragan slamed his fists on the table. "Garrus, you are an idiot. The Quarians didn't let the Geth break free. It was their – the Geth – fault to have it."_

_"As you Turians were happy releasing the genophage on the Krogan,"she shot back at Garrus. "We didn't let them do anything! They were to ones who attacked us, so don't act like you know what my people are like, you bosh'tet!" It started off as a casual converstation but when Garrus said those infamous words._

_"You're assuming that sterilizing them was mistake," Garrus replied easily. "My people saved the galaxy, unlike yours." Tali glared at him, fuming over Garrus insults._

_"You know Garrus, you make a good point," John said. "We humans have a saying: 'You broke it, you bought it'." Tali stared at John in disbelief._

_"How can you say that? I thought you, of all people, were above this." Tali was hurt._

_"Cause Shepard knows history," Garrus said smugly._

_"Sure he knows but do you know any of your fucking history as well Garrus. You owe me an aplogy," Ragan narrowed his eyes at the Turian. John laughed at him._

_"Yeah I do. And you owe me the same thing Garrus," John had a hard look in his eyes._

_"For what," Garrus returned to both of their glares with a blank stare._

_"The First Contact War. You turian killed a lot of my people and occupied on of our planets. And that's the least of your problems," John said coldly. Garrus gulped, he pissed of the wrong person. "The genophage. Biological weapons, if humans did that shit we'd be put on trial. You committed a war crime, Turian, and yet your people are considered heroes."_

_"T-That's absurd," Garrus snapped back._

_John stepped forward and grabbed the Turian's armor, pulling sharply so that they were face to face. "Then explain to the rookie, how you can judge her race but she can't judge yours." He shoved Garrus hard against the wall of the elevator. The doors opened and John turned back at the Turian, "You and me in my cabin now, it seems I wasn't clear enough about causing trouble on my ship, oh don't worry you're going to learn." Tali looked back at Garrus with a satisfied smirk._

**NOW**

Garrus turned pale. '_When am I going to learn to keep my damned mouth shut,_' he thought. Of course this wasn't the first time, oh no that honor happened when to his talk with Wrex, over how Krogan were brainless thugs only good for target practice, of course when he was talking about the mercs they were fighting, but Wrex overheard and a fight almost happened. Garrus and John exchanged a few words on the value of respect. '_More like he yell while I listen, after two times, I don't even want to go through that again,_' he though with fear. '_Say what you want to Humans, they can inflict the fear of gods in you._' Garrus shuttered and reached engineering. This was not going to be fun. He gulped and stepped inside, it was like he stepped into a cold front. Adams and the other engineers gave him a cold glares until Ragan came in. When they saw Ragan, the cold glares died off. It made sense after all, Tali were like a little sister to everyone in engineering and no one messes with their little sister.

"What do you want," Adams said coldly.

'_More like a daughter to Adams,_' Garrus thought. "I-I'm here to talk to Tali, alone if you don't' mind," he said nervously.

Adams crossed his arms. "Anything you can say in front of Tali, you can say in front of us." The Engineers all looked at him, Garrus gulped, he really did not want to be there. "We're waiting."

"It's okay Adams. I'll take it from here," Tali said.

Adams looked at Tali. "You sure?" Tali nodded. "I'm watching you, Vakarian," he kissed. If Garrus was a lesser man he would have pissed himself now. Adams and the engineers left, leaving Garrus and Tali in the main part and Ragan went to the engine room.

Tali crossed her arms and glared at Garrus at him, "What do you want? Come to condemn my people again," she said coldly. It was now or never.

"I'm sorry," he said with a slight bow.

Tali stared blackly up at the Turian for a long moment. They heard the engine room door close. "What?" She was expecting a fight, not apology. She crossed her arms. "Well I'm listening," she said gesturing Garrus to so sit. Garrus sat next to Tali.

The Turian sighed. "Turians are brought up to own our actions. Denying a crime is worse than doing it in the first place to us. We also keep detailed history and own that as well. It's… just part of who we are. I shouldn't be holding another species to our rules," he explained.

"You're right, shouldn't have," Tali shot back. He knew the Quarian was not going to make this easy.

Garrus rubbed his neck. "I know you are not exactly trustful to the council races and I understand, me talking about your race like that didn't help." Tali looked at him still listening. "I'm not sure what to think now," Garrus admitted, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "You didn't make the Geth, but your ancestors did. If you were Turian, I'd say you should share the blame. But you're not a Turian, and your people have already been punished for nearly three hundred years…"

Tali took a deep breath. "Yes. We have been. Every single one of us lives on ships; we're a hull breach away from extinction. We can't get jobs, because of other races look down on us, we can't own a planet, because your people would threaten black us into space dust and we can't even do the stuff you take for granted, a kiss could put me in the hospital and intercourse could outright kill me," she said sadly.

"People may age are forced to risk life and limb looking for something to ensure the survival of Quarian race, a lot of them never come back," she said. "We can't even mourn out dead the proper way, because it's a waste of resources, do you know how it feels to be a fifteen years old child seeing your people space your own mother's body if a certain accident? Luckily Ragan was there and saved my mother."

Garrus posture assumed that same shamed stance he'd shown in the elevator, "I didn't know about that part."

"Just remember that the next tiem you start talking about my people," Tali said while turning back to the console.

Garrus simply nodded. "Maybe we can start over, as friends, if you're willing," he said humbly.

Tali turned back and sighed, "Okay Garrus, you did a brave thing to apologize to me, so I guess we can start over."

Garrus was relieved that the air was cleared between him and Tali, and then he remembered what Kaiden wanted him to do. "So about that hug on Therum."

Tali stiffened and glared at him. "I knew it, I knew it was too good to be true," angered at the Turian.

Garrus waved his hands in alarm. "Before you jump to conclusions, I did mean what I said."

Tali calmed down a little. "That hug was all I could think about since we came back, all it did was confuse my feelings for him farther," she was sad when Garrus looked at her.

"Look, I'm not the best when it comes to relationships, but I do know this: you will only get more confused, love is kind of like that."

Tali lowered her head. "So what should I do?"

Garrus thought for a second. "Talk to him, something may come of it or not, but if you take too long you'll lose his friendship," he softly said. Tali looked at him surprised that was really wise of him to say. Garrus looked at her blankly. "What?"

To Garrus' surprise, Tali hugged him and ran out of Engineering Room, to look for John. Leaving a very confused Turian, then he heard footsteps and Tali was back at the door. "Oh, thank you, Garrus."

Garrus blinked. "Uh, no problem, Tali."


	17. Chapter 15: Heart to Heart

Chapter 15: Heart to Heart

It was nighttime on the Normandy, which meant only the skeleton crew was on duty. It was perfect for John, peace and quiet to think about what Kaiden said. Mindoir was always a touchy subject, even with Kaiden and Anderson knowing. Then Akzure, surviving the Thresher Maw and losing his whole squad on that attack. And then Torfan was out of the question, because even John was ashamed of talking about it. He was afraid of how Tali would think of him, he had enough of pity from his academy days, and he was afraid of Tali not talking to him.

Kaiden was right, Tali trusted him, enough for to drop her pilgrimage and sigh on a possible suicide mission, and join them, it said a lot about her. Despite, their rough start he saw Tali as a good Friend, one of the few that will put up with his shit, what happened on Therum awakened new feelings for the young Quarian. The only one to make him feel this way was Emi on Mindoir twelve years ago; there was no denying it he was falling for Tali. John hadn't had a real relationship since then all of them have been the typical one night stands, it made things easy. "No love and no pain involved, simple, easy," he said with a sad smile.

"Hey Shepard," Tali said as she approached the table. Shepard looked at her and couldn't help but blush. She was fidgeting, she was just as nervous about the talk as he was; he couldn't help but find it cute.

"It's too quiet to sleep," John asked with a somewhat amused on his face. He knew from their conversion on the Normandy.

Tali gave a small chuckle. "You could say that," then it was quiet again, the tension was so thick. "About that hug…," she started.

John looked at her and interrupted, "It shouldn't have happened," he was tense.

"Oh…," she simply said. Her head lowered, all John could do was rub his head sheepishly. "Y-You're right, it should have happened, I'm sorry… to put you in that position," she choked. '_Great I hurt her feelings, just because of my stupid fear,_' he cursed himself. Tali turned away. So that was it, this was not going to get resolved, and their friendship would be ruined. Could he just let it end like this, because of his fear losing someone close?

"Tali wait," he started. He couldn't finish. Tali looked back at him. John stood up and put his hands on her shoulder. "That hug… I meant it," she could tell that he was nervous.

Tali looked at him and blushed. "Y-you did?" she asked. John went to sit down and Tali followed him.

Jane comes out of the elevator form her night exercises and sits down at the table John and Tali are about to sit down at. She then hit her head on the table and fell asleep. Leaving the room private.

"When you were rescued by Ragan, it brough back some bad memories," he said solemnly. Tali looked at him with concern, since they met he never talked about his past, the one time she learned anything from before was from Kaiden.

"What kind of bad memories," she was cautious.

John took a deep breath, "When we," he moved his finger from him and Jane to indicate that he was talking about them, "were sixteen, Batarian slavers raiden my home. We were survivors. My family and friends wasn't so lucky. We lost three brothers and one sister," he said sadly.

"I'm sorry…" Tali began, uncertain of what else to say.

John put his hand up, "D-Don't, I don't need your pity and my sister doesn't need it either. We both hate pity, just understand."

Tali came up and did something surprising; she wrapped her arms around John. "I won't, I care too much to pity you," she got her soft voice for him.

Tears came to his eyes, and he buried his head on her shoulder. She felt warm despite her environment suit. He couldn't understand it, he had thought he didn't have tears left for Mindoir, but he did and it felt good. Tali didn't see him weak man to be pitied, like all the rest who know his situation. "Thank you," he said. Holding back the tears.

Tali smiled a little behind her mask, "So who else knows besides me?"

The brother wiped his eyes, "Kaiden, Anderson, and a lot of Alliance personal." Tali tilted her head and John chuckled and continued. "Kaiden was the first one I trusted to tell this to and Anderson saved my life on Mindoir and took me and Jane in."

Tali smiled, "Is that why you joined the Alliance?"

John nodded, "Yeah, it was one of the reasons I joind out of thanks for him saving our lives."

"One of the reasons? What was the other?"

John rubbed his head, "Sorry, maybe later, it's not something I'm ready to share just yet."

Tali nodded, "It's okay, tell me when you're ready. I'm just glad you trusted me enough to share." She started to turn away.

"What about you," John asked. Tali looked back at him. "You haven't told me about yourself since you first came onboard."

"Sure I have,"

"Yeah, your people, you love talking about them. But not yourself. I have to admit, I've always been curious."

Tali shook her head. "With good reason. Quarian aren't trusting to other races, and the other races hate us, so what's the point? Besides, I didn't think you would want to know…"

"I do, trust me," John walked to her and took her hand.

Tali looked at him and blushed. She and John sat back down. "I was born on the ship, the Rayya. I've never lived anywhere but the Rayya but I've visited the other ships once or twice. My father taught me serveral things, engineering and technology combat and all that. He's an admiral of the fleet."

"So Little Miss Tali is a princess, that explains the attitude," John smirked while teasing.

Tali scoffed, "Don't call me that, bosh'tet."

John had a huge shit eating grin, "Oh yeah, what are you going to do, little princess?"

"'Little princess' huh? I'll show you this 'little princess' can do...," Tali said. She got up and immediately try to pounce on him, but John was too fast and dodged it easily. He gave a smug smile and gestured Tali to bring it on, Tali charged and John used the table as leverage and jumped over her. Tali was impressed with John's agility, despite being taller and heavier than she was.

Jane woke up and looked at them. "What are you two doing?"

"Nothing, you leave us," John ordered his sister to leave. Jane shook her head and gave a wide smile that is from ear to ear.

Jane gets out of her seat and walks to the elevator. It was good for her to leave because she didn't want to see what was going to happen. Once Jane was out of sight, Tali and John continued their little wrestling.

After many minutes of playing around, Tali found herself tired and John not even breathing heavily. "Come on, Rookie. That all you got?"

"Bosh'tet…" John just smirked, she really wanted to wipe off that smile of his face, she then realized a can on the floor; it must have been knocked to the floor when they were roughhousing.

"Give up, Rookie?"

"Not yet…" Tali charged again and John tried to dodge, but was about to trip on a can, and which her hands pushing against his upper body, Tali caused John to stumble backwards and he landed on his back with Tali on top of him.

"Hah, Not such a little princess anymore, am I," Tali victoriously asked.

John just huffed and snorted, "You just got lucky."

Tali just smirked, "Aw is the great Commander John Shepard pouting?" Next thing he knew he kissed her on her mouthpiece.

John smirked, "Not anymore."

Tali blushed and tried to get off of him, but he just grabbed the sides on her waist and looked in her eyes. "You sure about this," she asked softly. "Dating a Quarian I mean."

"No, but I'm willing to try to take it slow, if you're up to it," he went to his softly. "As for the Quarian thing, I don't care about that… never did."

Tali blushed and smiled back. "Then I would like that, taking it slow I mean."

"Good," he said. John smiled, he would risk it. And he wouldn't let his past or his fear ruin this, for the first time Mindoir was not on his mind. He would make this work. After a little while, John and Tali just stayed up, enjoying each other's company. "It's getting kind of late…"

"Yeah…," Tali said softly. John and Tali hugged each other and separated. "Good night, Shepard."

"Good night, Tali." John went back to his room; he looked back as the elevator went down and smiled. Tonight was a good night to be alive.


	18. Chapter 16: Calm before the Storm

Chapter 16: Calm before the Storm

Last night had been a huge surprise, for them both of them, neither of them expected to end up a couple, but they were and they knew nothing of what to do next. However, John was serious that he would make this word, so he went to the number one expert on relationships, Kaiden. "You and Tali are what," Kaiden said surprised.

"Yep, we're a couple now, it kind of happened in the heat of the moment," John said rubbing his head. Kaiden looked at him blankly; he had talk to John to stop the awkwardness between him and Tali, but he didn't think they would be official so soon. "I'm out of practive with this stuff, so I came to you; you had a lot of relationships back at the academy."

"Yes but they were men. Remember I'm gay. I don't know anything about relationships with women, much less alien women," he was annoyed. Kaiden looked at John's face and sighed. "Well you are going to take things slow with her right? Tali's a nice girl, so tell me you aren't going to treat this like one of your one-night stands."

John nodded his head, "Don't worry. I care for Tali. I don't see her like that. It's hard to understand but when I see her, it makes me happy. I haven't felt that way in a long time."

Kaiden smiled and shook his head, impressed with his answer. "Well if you're going to do it then I suggest you start things off with a date."

"Good, good, um where," John didn't know what to asked. Kiaden palmed his hand to his face.

"Think about it, we have nothing to do and what's the one place that has everything," Kaiden said.

"The Citadel! But wait, would Tali go for it? It's not exactly her favorite place," John knew that. He knows how Quarian were treated there, horrible.

Kiaden smiled. "As long you are with her, she'll have fun, after all she's there for you not for those bigots." John thanked him and made his way to engineering.

He made to engineering and he was nervous this was going to be his first date with his new girlfriend. '_Girlfriend, I actually got a girlfriend now,_' he though amazed. He shook his head; he couldn't believe he was acting like he was fifteen again. He went inside and found the engineers all smiling at him. Ragan then comes out of the Engine Room and looks at them. '_Okay this is creepy,_' he thought as he made his way to Tali.

"Alright people, get back to work," Ragan's voice rang through the whole compartment and made everyone to get on their toes. "Anyone who is not doing their job, get back to work or you will be forced to do KP duty for the next five months." Everyone went back to work. "Zorah, Shepard. Office now."

"Yes sir," both of them said. But to John didn't bother being ordered by a CXO. They went down the stairs and opened the door that is about five feet away from the stairs. It wasn't installed until the Alliance found out that the Chief Engineer need to be have some time alone. Adams never used the room, so Ragan has been using it for his base of operations and sending reports towards the Alliance High Command.

"Now time to speak for a little while. I need to know something. What the hell is going on? First the engineers stop working and I see you in this 'lovey-dovey' shit." John and Tali just stood silent. "If you don't speak then get out. You're not wasting my time with this." John and Tali then walked out the office and back to engineering.

"Hey rookie," he said when they got back to Tali's station. Everyone then went back at watching them.

Tali looked at him and sighed, "Really? Still calling me rookie, even though we're dating now." John knew she was teasing. She then came forward and hugged him.

John smirked. "What can I say, it stuck with me," he hugged her back. He looked at the other engineers looking away. "What's with then," John said pointed at them.

Tali stiffened and rung her hands together. "Um, they kind of know about us," she was nervous and John's eyes went wide.

"What? How," he asked then looked at the engineers, who stiffened.

Tali blushed, "They kind of spied on us."

"What?! Adams," he said letting go of Tali. Tali grabbed his arm and pulled him back. John looked at her and calmed down. '_Right, can't get angry now, but I'm going to have a talk with Adams,_' he thought. He knew engineering were some of the most close-kit on the ship, unfortunately they were also the nosiest. Adams calmed down.

"So what are you doing here, n-not that I'm not happy to see you," she nervously said. John looked at her, '_Yep, still cute,_' he though with a smile.

"I was wondering if you would like to go on a date, with me, on the Citadel," John had a big smile on his face. Tali looked down; John blinked, it was not the reaction he was expecting. "What's wrong?" There was concern in his voice.

"Do you want to be seen in public, with me, a Quarian," sadness got to her voice. The engineers and Adams cleared out of engineering, giving them some privacy. '_Great, the one time they're not nosy,_' he thought. John looked at her and kissed her mouthpiece, it was kind of weird to kiss plastic and metal, but with Tali's immune system the way it is, a real kiss was not going to happen for a while and he was strangely okay with it.

Tali blushed. "Does that answer your question? Look I don't give a damn what other people thinks. I want this to work, okay," he softly say. Tali smiled and hugged him. "Good girl. We'll be at the Citadel in five hours so get ready."

"Okay Shepard," she didn't want to say his first name.

"Please, call me John," a smile crept on his face.

The Normandy glided into a dock at the Citadel for 10 hours of restocking, refueling and charge dumping, just enough time for the crew to get some rest and for John and Tali to have their date. Of course the date didn't start well, first was that asshole of admiral complaining about his ship and crew and he almost lost it when he called Tali a suit rat; that was the thing about John, he could insult him all he wanted, but insult friends and family or this cause girlfriend all bets were off, but Tali stop him from making a big mistake. So Ragan got on to the admiral.

They heard yelling from Ragan, "YOU ARROGANT BASTARD," the looked behind and saw the admiral shaking in his shoes, "YOU THINK THIS IS RIGHT TO DO THAT! I HAD ENOUGH OF YOU! GET OUT OF HERE AND NEVER RETURN, **SPECTRE AUTHORITY!**" The admiral ran away so quick that it looked like the whole loiter that was on the floor was going to make a dust cloud behind him.

Then there was that bitch, Khalisah al-Jilani, doing everything could to smear John's name and he had to stop Tali from trying throttle the woman, although he would have welcomed it and Tali was kind of sexy when angry, her people didn't need 'violent' to be added to her people's reputation. Finally they made it to the Presidium.

"Finally, we're here," John said tiredly. He looked at Tali, she was out of breath too. "Now we can have that date."

"Yes we can," she said before hugging him. As they were hugging, people were staring at them. A few looked angry and aghast that a Human would seem to be with a Quarian, while the rest looked confused. "Um John, I think we should sit down."

Tali and John were having a great time despite the stares they were getting, inter species relationships were uncommon on the Citadel, but a Human/Quarian pairing was downright unusual. John could tell was getting uncomfortable and did the unthinkable, he asked her to dance. They went down to the wards to a club called Flux.

John like Flux. It was full of energy and for once people weren't trying to shoot them for once, and it contained alcohol, because no one should ever forget the alcohol. Then he saw the dancing and suddenly to regret this, however Tali was not going to let him back out. "So how about it Commander? Or is the big, bad music making you scared," she was playfully joking.

John blushed. "Um well… you know…," he stammered. '_Dammit, why am I so nervous,_' he thought.

Tali smiled and pulled him to the dance floor. John was surprised he never knew Tali was so good at dancing. When Tali saw John start dancing, she was in complete awed. John was dancing with the beat and doing it correctly. "You are really good at this you know that," she was giggling when she saw him get down on the floor and does a spiral move that made him go on one hand and lift his whole lower and midsection of his body.

"Yeah, yeah," he just kept on dancing.

"I don't think I can be as good at you though," she moved like water.

John started blushing as his pants got tighter. '_Damn that's sexy, but down boy,_' he cursed himself. "And here I was worried about you," he said with a smile.

Tali smiled back, "No need, I can take care of myself," she said dancing seductively. '_Damn she's making it easy for me._'

"Getting kind of thirsty, want a drink Tali," John was being a good host.

"As long as it's sterilized."

"Got it, one sterilized turian drink coming up," John went to get the drinks as Tali continued dancing. A Turian and Human decided to cause trouble. They looked at the Quarian with a disgusting smile on their faces, they walked near her, too near for Tali's comfort.

"Hey baby, how about we have some fun," the Turian asked.

"Not interested," Tali said. The Turian would not give up and his friends joined in.

"Come on, make it worth our while," the Human said before grabbing Tali's arm.

"Let go," she yelled. Then the Human did one major mistake, he touched Tali's ass.

"Mmm, soft kind of surprised from a suit rat bitch like you," he lewdly said. Tali glare at him, and gave a hard punch but was grabbed by the Human. "Nice try." A blade came over this shoulder and touched his neck.

"Back off," Tali looked and saw Ragan behind the Human. "You want a fight, fight me. A Spectre." The Human turns around but Ragan quickly puts his sword back in the case then punched the man's nose. The man held his nose in pain.

"Ah! Fucking cunt broke my nose," the human said. The dance floor started to clear as they were watching the spectacle, of a Spectre pissign off a human and a Turian. The human looked at the Turian Angrily. "What are you waiting for, you idiot?! Let's fuck this asshole!" Ragan raised his arms ready for a fight, until the Human and Turian blown back by a swift kick to the stomach.

"You fuckers got a lot of nerve trying to threaten some of my crew in front of me," John looked at him.

Tali looked at John, "You shouldn't have seen that."

"Of course, you see any other Japanese man who is powerful," John smirked. Off to the side of his eyes, the Human and Turian got up and looked ready to fight.

"Ragan, you get the Turian…" Ragan raised his hand and charged towards the Turian. The Turian grabbed Ragan's arm which was a big mistake because he got used the Turian as a battering ram towards the Human. The Talon tried to use his talons on the Spectre, but Ragan just kept dodging the blows. When he got one punch on Ragan, he was ready as he held out his arm and stomped on the Turian's knees forcing him on the ground and end it with a knee to his face. The human held out a knife and tried to swing it at him but was swept off his feet, causing the Human to fall. He then gave a huge swift kick to the gut, knocking the air out of the enemy. The two thugs was no match for him and the bouncer grabbed Ragan.

"I suggest you let me go. Spectre you're touching to," the bouncer let go and grabbed the thugs. "Before you throw them out, allow me to do something to them." The bouncer looked at him and let him come up and broke both of the arms on both the Human and Turian. "Now you can throw them out." The bouncer threw them out.

John rubbed his hands and smirked. "Good riddance to bad rubbish," he then grabbed Tali by the waist and looked at Ragan. "Good moves for protecting her." Ragan just gave a nod. John then kissed her mouthpiece.

"Thanks, Ragan."

The crowd around Ragan then started applauding. With John and Tali still dancing until they left the club. Only to find Kaidne waiting for them. Ragan was there, he left an hour before John and Tali were at the Flux. "Enjoy the date," Kaiden asked with a grin. The couple blushed.

"What are you doing here other than teasing us," John annoyed. Kaiden's grin disappeared. "Kaiden?"

"We got a message from Admiral Kohoku, he wants us to meet him at Chora' Den," he said seriously. John and Tali looked at each other. '_What's an Admiral doing in that hellhole?_'

"Why," Tali asked.

"He wants to talk about that mission on Edolus we did a while back," Kaiden said.

"Why is he curious about Edolus," John was trying to put this together.

"The men that died served under him and he suspects foul play," Ragan explain. "I'm telling you, I have a bad feeling that he is going to say something about Cerberus." The four made their way to Chora's Den.


	19. Chapter 17: Shadow of Cerberus

Chapter 17: Shadow of Cerberus

Chora' Den, a gentlemen's club on the Citadel, in the lower section of the Wards near the Markets and a place John like to forget, it was one of the first places he went to get evidence on Saren's betrayal those two months ago. However, it wasn't totally a bitter experience; after all it was how he met the cute Quarian he was now dating. The four of them went through the alleyway, the same one where John and Tali first met at, and met up with Ashley. "Hey, Skipper," she said.

John stiffened at seeing her, "Uh, Ash, w-what are you doing here?"

"Kaiden, brought me. Ragan invited," she pointed at Ragan. John glared at Ragan and he just rubbed his head sheepishly.

"He did, did he," he was the type that didn't like being surprised by something that is needed.

Ashley then looked at Tali. "Uh, what is Tali doing here," she asked. John paled at that, he knew Williams had a problem with aliens, a problem she had sometimes suppressing. '_Oh boy. How is she going to react to me and Tali dating?_' Ashley had a crush on John, he knew it, she wasn't very good at hiding that fact, but now he and Tali were dating, he knew he would have to play referee sooner or later, just not now.

"Tali was with me shopping for new weapons and engine parts, that's all," Ragan covered John. Tali looked at him, but gave him an understanding nod. Tali and John's relationship was still new; they weren't ready to tell the crew just yet.

"Yeah, what would he ever do, if bought the wrong weapon or engine part," Tali winked at Ragan and he gave a nod for understand to lie. Both Ragan and Tali laughed nervously causing Ashley to raise a brow but let it go, much to their relief.

As the group walked, John hung back; he needed to have a talk with Ragan, "Ahsley? Are you crazy? You know how she feels about aliens," he whispers.

"Ash is Alliance too, I can't just leave her out, Jane is here also, especially with it comes with Admirals," Ragan paused for a second. John glared at him. "Don't worry; she doesn't know about you and Tali, I made sure of that. Plus, having Ashley with an alien will slowly get her out of xenophobia." John sighed and nodded.

"You're a good cousin," John said. Ragan gave him a grin.

"And don't you forget it," he jokily laughed. The two men gave a small laugh, but stopped when Ash looked back at them.

"Something I should know," she asked with a raised brow.

Kaiden shook his head, "Ashley, you need to lay low. They are family after all."

"Fine," Ashley gave a huff of wind that made them flinch for a little. "But I still want to know."

John looked at her, "That we're here?" he pointed at the door. Ashley stood at attention, readying her weapon. Ragan did the same thing but was grabbing his chain kunai. John couldn't blame them, they had heard about the gun fight that John, Wrex, and Garrus had at this place. John looked at Kaiden. "And you're sure that the message was good?" Kaiden nodded. He took a deep breath. "Let's go, but keep your weapons ready just in case." Tali, Ash, Ragan, and Kaiden nodded, and they went inside.

The club was full of seedy characters, lively music and slutty Asari dancers just like before. '_Look like business hasn't suffered since Fist's death, it look even dirtier, if that was even possible,_' John thought.

"Huh, I can see why this place is so popular, got quite the view," Kaiden said. "Now if only they had entertainment to me…"

Ashley shook her head, "Millions of light years from where humanity began and we walk into a glorified titty bar." She looked at some men that were checking her out, "And men drooling over half-naked women – but those three aren't, they are drooling over for me – shaking their asses on tables, don't know if I find this funny or sad."

Tali elbowed John to his side to get his attention, John looked at her. "I hope to never see you here, John," she said in a commanding voice.

John smirked at her. "Don't worry about me, rookie, strip clubs are so overrated," he said. "I rather have the mystery."

Tali blushed, "Good to know…"

Ragan then looked at some of the people. "Bunch of inbred monkeys. The lot of them. Drooling for the same women that they will never get. I'm sadden to see this." He then starts scanning the club until he saw an older gentleman, in civilian gear. "Are you Admiral Kohoku," he asked cautiously. The man nodded and gestured for the group to come and sit with him. The older man spoke.

"Shepard, nice to finally meet you, it's about time the Council got off their asses and made two of us a Spectres," Kohoku's gaze went over to Tali. "If you don't mind me asking, why is the Quarian with you?" It wasn't with venom, he was really curious.

"Tali is part of my crew, and I'm not getting rid of her, if that's what you're thinking," John defended her. He looked at Tali, and she smiled back, happy for his defense of her. John then heard Kohoku laugh.

"I heard about your non-human crew, you don't have to worry, I'm not one of those idiots – or what the Quarians say bosh'tets – who believe in the gospel of human stubbornness," he said. Tali laughed at the comment when 'bosh'tect' came in. John was relieved, he didn't have to defend his crew choices like that other admiral, which really, Ragan was the one that got the admiral to run away. "They may not like it, but even they have to admit that having a multi-species crew makes the Alliance look good, so treat your crew well, Commander John Shepard. And they will go the extra mile for you, remember that." John nodded happy with the admiral's words. The older man grew serious now, "Now that this is over, let's get to business, you have data on my men."

John told the man about their mission on Edolus, the distress beacon, and the battle with a Thresher Maw that almost cost them their lives. The Commander saw Kohoku's face; he was obviously disturbed by the story. "And my men," Kohoku asked.

"Sent them back to their families, I'm just sorry we couldn't save them," John added.

"No, you did enough. Thank you. They were good men and women. And they didn't deserve to die like that." Kohoku said solemnly. The team nodded their head. "What if I told that what happened on Edolus was not an accident." John's eyes widen and the admiral continued. "That someone attracted the Maw on purpose," he was angered.

'_Someone attracted a maw on purpose,_' the thought in John's mind was very disbelievingly. Thresher Maws are some of the nastiest creatures in the galaxy, even Krogan weren't crazy enough to take one without lots of firepower, but for someone to lure them out, mean one thing; they were facing some sick group. "Who did this," Ashley said though gritted teeth. Kohoku gave John an OSD.

"What's this," John then looked at it for a few seconds.

"Our dirty laundry, they're called Cerberus," Kohoku saw Ragan start popping his knuckles, "and they used to…"

"Be an Alliance Black-Ops group, gone rouge about five years ago," Ragan interrupted him. The team was taken aback from this statement. '_They were Alliance,_" John was trying to put the puzzle together.

"I see you have did your homework, Ragan Shepard. I'm proud of you," Kohoku was then looking at them. Kaiden then beat John to a question.

"Alliance? But how," Kaiden wasn't sure about this.

Ragan looked at them, "Not much to say other than that the so-called leader is hard to track. Alliance has decided to call him the Illusive Man. The Illusive Man found Cerberus back in 2157 during the First Contact war. They went rouge about five years ago. They are working all over the galaxy with project names. One of the most notable one was Project Titan. Cerberus is will funded and is hard to track but when it comes to outposts or projects, most of the time they aren't discovered, but they do get discovered then trailed followed by execution if the people don't give up ties. Cerberus is pro-Human and is a fucking terrorist group. Kill Alliance Admirals that ask questions, take young children and torture them until biotics are nearly unstable, and purging places that are populated by aliens. But they pretty much haven't attacked full planets because that would lead war from all the species against Humanity."

"Why do this,"

Kohoku shook his head, "Don't know, but I know this, they are out of control. Like Ragan said, they are very rouge by what they do. And need to be put down." The team nodded their head in agreement. "I found three of their bases on Bindhu in the Yangtze system, go destroy them for my men."

John nodded, he respected the man's concern for his men. "What will you do," John asked bluntly.

Kohoku lowered his head. "Meet with their families, and go to their funerals. It's something I'm not looking forward to," he said sadly. That stuck a cord with the group, they saluted the old admiral, and even Tali who wasn't a member of the Alliance saluted.

"We'll go now sire and your men will rest easy," John said. Him and the team left Chora' Den.

"I feel so sorry for him, to lose his men like that…," Tali was sadden at that. "Whatever this Cerberus is, their barbaric."

"Yeah, still hard to believe they were allies at one point," Kaiden looked Ragan. Ragan had the most history with Cerberus.

Ash scoffed. "I'd hardly call a black-ops group allies, too many secrets and I don't trust anyone with that many secrets," she said. "I say the faster we take them out, the more time we can get back to preserving the Alliance honor."

"It's not only for the Alliance. I had the most with Cerberus. They were on Japan – a country that is founded on Earth – and they attacked the village I was staying at during my college days. They burnt it. I've seen firsthand what Cerberus does to populated areas that has aliens more than Humans."

John looked at Ragan and was shocked at it. "I didn't know."

"Don't pity me. I hate pity. I lost my wife and two daughters because of those fucking terrorist assholes that they think they are projecting Humanity," Ragan had venom in his voice and his eyes looked like ice came down on them.

The team made it back to the Normandy, Kaiden, Ashley, and Tali went to their places. John and ragan went to the cockpit.

"Joker, get us to these coordinates," John said.

"Aye-aye, Commander." It was time to go hunting the barbaric group. Ragan sat in the seat Pressly normally sat at but Pressly was sick with the flu.


	20. Chapter 18: Revenge of the Maw

Chapter 18: Revenge of the Maw

Bindhu has an atmosphere of carbon dioxide, with a permanent haze of toxic chlorine and clouds sulfur dioxide that periodically drops torrents of acidic raid on the surface. Its crust is mainly composed of sulfur with deposits of calcium. Bindhu's surface's like most worlds in Voyager Cluster, Bindhu has only been charted within last 20 years by Alliance surveyors. It has no know native ecology. Data about the world is surprisingly brief and generic, painting a picture of an unpleasant and uninteresting place.

"Perfect hiding place," John said reading Bindhu's data. The team landed on Bindhu not long ago looking for Cerberus' bases. John had decided to bring Ashley, Wrex, and Garrus; Tali had complained about not taking her, but quick kiss was all that was needed to quiet her down. He had promised her she would come along on the next mission with him. Ever since they been a couple, they all of a sudden became more protective of each other. '_We know nothing about Cerberus, I'm not going to put her life in danger needlessly,_' he thought. As the Mako drove to its destination, something did not feel right, getting to their base was too easy.

"Skipper…" Ash said. John looked at her; she was getting the same feeling also. The team spread out of the perimeter, looking for clues of an ambush, there was none. "Nothing over here, Skipper, except a… beacon," she was puzzled.

John's eyes went wide, it was a trap. "Shit! Everyone get back to the Mako, on the double," he ordered as the ground began to shake. The team made it to the Mako just in time to be thrown like a rag doll. John activated the Mako's thrusters to soften the landing. The Maw was not done, however and pursued them. "Ash on radar, Wrex you get the guns. Garrus, try to find a way to stabilize the main targeting system. Let's blow this worm away." Ash nodded and Wrex gave an unsettling grin and laughed while Garrus gave a thumbs up.

"This is going to be fun," Wrex said while activating the weapons.

"Don't get your hopes to up," Garrus was working on the targeting system and got it working. "Okay, you should be aiming about 50 percent better now." He starts working on the draw back to stabilize the shields.

"I'm so happy for you, Wrex, I was worried you weren't having fun," Ash said sarcastically. Shu pulled up the radar systems and kept track of the Maw. John gunned it and moved the Mako just before the Maw rammed into the tank.

For once, John's reckless driving was a life saver, as the maw could not predict the Mako's movements. Wrex used the Mako's guns to slow down the Maw and the cannons to damage it, while Ash kept up with its movements. The Maw went underground making Ash lose position. "Uh, Skipper…," she gave off a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"Yeah I know," John said. The Mako sped up trying to get out of range of its breaching, if the Maw flipped them, it was going to be over. The Maw breached barely missing the Mako. "Wrex, cannons!" John's voice is heard throughout the Mako. Wrex gave out a grin, no matter how many times he has seen the Krogan grin, it still crept him out. Wrex fired and the Maw lost one of its tendrils and gave a shrill cry.

"Ha, he felt that," Wrex gloated. The Thresher Maw soon responded in kind, spitting out its dangerous yellow acid. John had read up everything on those animals, and he knows that Thresher Maw acid was still a poorly understood chemical substance – but just enough to stay the hell away from it. The Mako went into reverse gear, hard. The force hit them hard, but it was worth it: The acid missed the vehicle barely. The Maw gave a piercing screech and went after the Mako; the one was more aggressive than the one on Edolus, which was saying something.

"Ah, fuck I think we just pissed it off more," John cursed under his breath. Wrex immediately fired the Mako's cannon as soon as it cooled down. Its slug hit the Thresher Maw with a great force. The beast threw back its head, and vanished in less than a second. The team then felt huge rumblings; the maw was pursing them underground.

"It's still alive," John's great annoyance was when Ashley shouted. "We need to move." '_No shit._'

"I know," John shouted back. "Now shut it and focus!" He couldn't see how Ash, sitting behind him, took this, but the soldier did shut up. The Commander yanked the Mako forwards again as fast as he could, taking a sharp curve as it breached the surface, only hitting air and some rocks. The Maw screeched angrily and tried to lunge after the team but kept missing. John guessed it must have been from when Wrex blew off the Maw's tendrils, it must have messed with it sense of balance, but made it pissed and very pissed. "Can't be sitting ducks," he explained in a hasty voice, "Sorry Ash."

"No worries," she replied. The cat and mouse games between the Mako and the Maw lasted for another hour, and then was what Cerberus was counting on, for the Maw to distract them and give them time to escape. Unfortunately, they didn't count of Wrex getting bore of the Maw quickly.

"I'm tired of this thing, time to finish this," Wrex said. '_Easier said than done._'

"How," Ashe asked.

Garrus turned his head, "Shepard, don't you have a plan?"

"No, Garrus not this time. Let's see what Wrex has."

"We better not rely on good luck," Wrex answered. "It's foolish to drive around in the Thresher Maw's nest like that. It's better than standing around, but it might be better even if we copy its tactics. Hit and Run, it wants to play dirty, we oblige," he put a big grin on his face.

John blinked, he wasn't expecting a strategy from Wrex. Krogan were mostly known for taking on things head on. "My god, that's fucking genius, Wrex."

"Okay, let me trying to get the shield power up and draw the targeting system down," Garrus. "If we are going to copy the Maw, its best if we do it with shields because it would most likely trying to kill us easy if we do it that way."

It proved to be a successful strategy. Immediately when the maw showed itself, John would drive the Mako backwards out of range again, firing at it the whole time. Peppering the Maw with constant fire., took its toll on the beast, the maw was slowing down. The creature tried to counter, but thanks to the combination of a very find tuned steering system, thrusters and an element zero reactor the Mako easily dodge the acid attacks. The Mako got in close to the Maw, it was time to finish this.

"Wrex light it up," John yelled. The maw was too slow to react, and at close range the Mako tore into it like paper. The Maw roard in pain. "Now the coup de gráce, finish it." Wrex aimed the cannon at the maw's head and fired. The maw's head exploded like a ripe melon and the Thresher Maw was no more.

"Bag it and tag it," Ash said with a smire.

"By the Spirits, second Thresher Maw I seen killed," Garrus was shocked at this.

John slowly drove the Mako to the 'distress beacon' near the base and destroyed it. He flinched when he remembered the acid burns and claw slashes of the dozen mangled bodies on Edolus. '_It must have been a massacre for the marines,_' he solemnly thought.

"They're going to pay," John said in the fire tone. The team made their way inside the base and was welcomed with Cerberus troops aiming their guns at them. Ashley and Wrex awaited order from John. All he did was gave a vicious smile as he gave his order. Garrus aimed his sniper rifle when he saw that smile.

"Take no prisoners, I want these bastards wiped off the fucking map," Cerberus was not going to fight Commander John Shepard; today they were to face the Butcher of Torfan. Wrex gave a feral grin and charged for the nearest Cerberus soldier, giving Ash, Garrus, and John time to get into cover. John glowed blue and smashed one of them against the wall, snapping his neck in the process. Ashley shot a cyro canister and the soldiers were frozen solid, she then shattered them to pieces. One of the researchers then started to glow blue, and pushed Ash against the wall.

"Ash," John yelled out. "Wrex, go get him!" Wrex rammed the researcher to the ground and blasted him with a point-blank shotgun blast. The rest of the Cerberus soldiers retreated deeper into the base, hoping to escape the team's onslaught, but John had other plans. "Okay, now Ragan. Hell dive." He threw a grenade at the resulting explosion left bloody chunks all over the wall and floors, John walked to the next area and heard a loud crash on the roof. '_Ragan is quick or something else is wrong._'

"Not bad for a Human," Wrex said somewhat amused. Ash shook her head and followed the Commander. The team went deeper into the base.


	21. Chapter 19: Hades' Dogs

**Author Notes: In case you never studied Greek mythology, Cerberus the Guardian of Hades. This is one reason why the chapter is called Hades' Dogs. The other is Hades' means hell dogs because if you played the ME games, Cerberus is known as a Terrorist group that will do anything to get it. Remember what the Illusive Man said in ME3, Cerberus is an idea.**

* * *

Chapter 19: Hades' Dogs

"Fucking terrorists," Ashley screamed. John and his team were in the middle of the fire fight with Cerberus in the first base on Bindhu. Being a former black-ops group for the Alliance, they proved to be lethal opponents. A Cerberus sniper took aim for a head, but was shot down by John in the waist.

"Calm down Ash, you can't get angry after they're dead," John was right about that. Ash nodded and dropped one after the other with her sniper rifle. John used his biotics and grenades to thin out the herd. Wrex however, tossed strategy out of the window and charged at them, due to his robust healing system, it was nothing more than bug bites for the Krogan. Ragan was in the venation shaft, and grabbed an unexpected Cerberus trooper by the head and flung him into the wall. Ragan jumps out of the shaft, and everyone sees him; guns pointed at him and the team.

Although Ashley didn't trust the Krogan, she was glad he was on their side. 'If he keeps this up, I might actually like him,' she thought. She then saw Ragan put two fingers in the air and Wrex charged into the soldiers that was surrounding him. Another Cerberus troop tried to fire at her, but Ash shot a cyro canister and froze him in place then shattered with rounds from her assault rifle.

Then she heard John yell, "This ends now." John got out of cover and created a biotic storm that made everything fly. Ragan was using his sword and slicing every solider that was coming at him. Ashley's jaw dropped. 'Since when could he create anti-singularity field,' she was in complete awe. "Wrex, warp field now," he ordered. Ragan slide behind some cover.

Wrex glowed a brilliant blue and fired a warp field. The clash of biotic energy caused a huge explosion that sent the Cerberus troops flailing back. Ashley approached John from the terminal. "How did you do that," a dumbfounded question from her mouth.

"Liara taught me, it was a bitch to learn," John gave a smirk. Ash smirked; she didn't like the Normandy's newest crewmate at first, she didn't trust her, as she was the daughter of one of Saren's allies, but a talk with John had helped things a little. And she was starting to trust them, although she still kept her eyes on them except Tali. And she still didn't trust Ragan. 'For someone that knows awfully lot about Cerberus, he knows something.' While she didn't quite turst Garrus, Wrex, and Liara on the ship, she didn't mind Tali too much; in fact the young Quarian grew on her. Ragan was a different story; even though he is human. "Ash," her thoughts were snapped back to the battle, and she saw John's anti-singularity field lifting another batch of soldiers, Ash got out her assault rifle and pelted the soldiers full of holes along with Ragan, who was using M-3 Predator. The battle ended.

"Ash find all you can on what Cerberus was doing here," John looked at Ragan and pointed at the ceiling. Ragan found some beams to climb on and started working up to a walkway. "Ragan had the top so no Cerberus will get the jump from above. Wrex and I will cover you." The soldier nodded and went to the terminals, as John and Wrex for any ambushes, a body falls from the sky. John looks up and sees Ragan killing a Cerberus trooper. John raised his gun and shot the trooper in the head. He then looks back. "Did you find anything?"

Ash shook her head. "Nothing, these Cerberus bastards are good, they wiped everything to cover their tracks," Garrus comes in the building and starts shooting at Cerberus troops that are outside. Ashley looks over to him, "This bastards are very prescient for keeping the bases safe from us."

John heard beeping and Garrus looked at the terminal, "Uh-oh…" the beeping go louder and lounder.

"GET TO COVER," Ragan yelled. Everyone scattered while Ragan just ran along the walkway and entered the next room.

"I must have entered a trap file, I set off the silent alarms." Ashley looks at the terminals. "Glad Ragan suggested that we get to cover." John and the team went into cover more Cerberus troops flooded in. But luckily the terminal was a bomb, so once it explodes, it will take most of the troops away from the fight. Among them was a biotic that threw a few boxes at them. Wrex just got out of cover and smashed the boxes like it was nothing, and charged the biotic. John overloaded the soldier's weapons, Garrus was sniping them off one by one, and Ash shot them in the head without aiming – lucky shots she was getting. Meanwhile Wrex was in a biotic tit for tat with the researchers, the two researchers threw warp fields at the Krogan, but Wrex just laughed it off and smashed one of the researcher with his own biotics while Ragan came out of the shadows of the hallway and snaps a the other researchers' neck. Wrex quickly blasted the lone researcher with his shotgun. Wrex gave a satisfied smirk and came over punching his fish to together.

"Hah! Never stood a chance," Wrex was very enthusiastic. Ash was breathing hard, she just didn't have stamina that John, Garrus, Ragan, and Wrex had. 'Says the giant lizard from hell,' she was thinking. All of a sudden they heard a growl, it was coming from Wrex.

"Wrex," Ash was nervous. Everyone in the galaxy knew about the Krogan's blood rage, the synergy of two aspects of Krogan neurology. The first aspect is the positive feedback look in which adrenaline, also activated by fear or rage, and suppresses serotonin, the brain chemical that induces serenity. The second is the over-developed Krogan limbic system. In Krogan, fear or rage shifts mental control from the frontal lobes, responsible for reasoning, to the limbic system, responsible for aggression and survival.

During that shift, Krogan exhibit diminished capacity for log and self-control. Wrex was an ally, so he wasn't going to attack, but Garrus and Ashley had their guns ready just in case. John saw and made them lower the guns. "Wrex, what's wrong," John asked calmly. Ash saw something at the corner of her eye; it looked vaguely like an insect.

"Um Skipper? I think I found the reason for Wrex's growling," she pointed at the hallway and Ragan turned around to see it. John turned and saw a roach/spider-like creature running around the base.

"Rachni," Wrex and Ragan said in unity.

Ash's eyes were wide. "I though your people killed all the Rachni."

Wrex looked at Ash, but Ragan beat him to the punch, "They had them. They had them all defeated and killed. Their greatest triumph! Krogan blood was spilled in the war against them. And now, there are living Rachni. Salarians found the Rachni and uplifted the Krogan to defeat them."

John places a hand on Wrex's shoulder, "Calm down. Cerberus is done; you think the Council and the Alliance will allow an organization that's studying living Rachni to exist? No, they'll hunt them all down for this."

'And what about the bug here," Wrex had a cold voice.

"What about them. If they're more, then you can hunt them to your heart's content," Ragan said. "If Cerberus brought back more, do you really want to have your fun end here?"

Wrex gave a feral smile. "You've got a quad, Ragan," he said. "You're right. A true warrior's is not satisfied by just one enemy, but an entire army, how can a Krogan not resist?" Ashley looked at them shocked. 'Those three are nuts,' she was beginning to rethink about Ragan.

John grinned. "Let's get these bastards; I'm sure you want to teach these guys not to fuck with a Krogan's pride." They rushed to the next base. A long dead enemy making a surprise appearance, whoever these Cerberus people were, they were worse than they thought. Even Ragan didn't know about this.

Wrex was a very pissed off Krogan, seeing an enemy that his ancestors fought centuries ago well do that to you. 'My people bled and died, because of them. I will not have Cerberus make a mockery of our honor,' he was angered like steam was about to leave his body. Left and right, Cerberus troops fell like rag dolls unable to stop the rampaging Krogan. Johhn and the team destroyed the first base and made it to the second one. The second base was just as heavily armed as the first one – except of the Thresher Maw – however unlike their friends before this batch was getting slaughtered like animals.

"G-get away, monster," one of the troops yelled in fear. Wrex just glowed and splattered his brains across the floor.

"This place is a dump," Williams' comment was with distaste. She then saw the base painted red with the blood of the Cerberus troops; the sight was very sickening to the Human. "You couldn't leave one person alive for questioning?"

Wrex looked back at the woman. "What would be the point? They won't talk," he was simply answering her question. Ash was about to say something, but Wrex continued. "Besides you heard Shepard, no one is to leave here alive." Garrus looks at the window and motions Ragan to take cover underneath the window. Ragan went underneath the window and waited for Garrus' signal.

"NOW," Garrus yelled. Ragan quickly spring up and grabs the trooper from the other side of the window – breaking it in the process – and flips the trooper on his back. Ragan then takes his hidden blade and stabs it in the trooper's skull. Pulling out the blade of his skull, Ragan saw shocked faces. John approached the team.

"Anything Skipper," Ash asked.

John shook his head. "Empty, just like the first one, you were right they are slippery bastards." John then looks at Wrex, "Feel better?" Wrex looked at him.

"If you mean, if I'm calmed down, yes," he calmly said. Wrex took a step forward at the energy field keep the Rachni caged in. The Krogan growled softly, as he stared at the creature that started it all. Centuries ago, Salarian explorers opened the mass relay to a previously unknown system and met the Rachni, who promptly captured them. The Rachni used their extensive research on element zero to reverse-engineer the FTL drives on the explorers' startships. They proceed to build FTL vessels of their own and rapidly expanded into the galaxy, ushering the Rachni Wars. 'All because of those damned fucking Salarians couldn't keep their fucking curiosity in check, this wouldn't have happened,' Wrex thought to himself. In their desperation, the Salarians uplifted the Krogan to combat the Rachni, due to their ability to survive the harshest environments. It took centuries, but the Krogan were able to strike at the queens in their lairs and reclaim conquered Council worlds, and the Krogan were seen as saviors.

However, the actions of a few stupid Krogan, made the galaxy fear them, the genophage was created soon afterwards, turning the Krogan into a dying race. Wrex then heard a voice behind him. "Penny for your thoughts," John asked. Wrex shook his head annoyed.

"During the Rachni Wars, I lost a lot of my people, they died because of a fucking mistake the Salarians made," he said grimly. "Some of them I looked up to." John looked at him blankly, Wrex had always been closed off, but for him to share, it was different.

"Wait, you knew some Krogan that fought during the Rachni War? How old are you exactly," John didn't believe Wrex. Wrex looked at the Human with an amused grin.

"Old enough to be your ancestor's ancestor," the Krogan said amused. Wrex grew serious. "The defeat of the Rachni, was the only claim to honor we had, before the genophage stripped us on it, but bringing them back, Cerberus spit on the honor and sacrifice of my people, and for what I can't forgive them."

Wrex whet to the console, "Surely you can understand that Shepard, after all didn't the Batarians spit on your honor."

"How did you know about that? I never told you about Mindoir," this made John have a shocked and crept out face.

"Cause you just told me, whelp," Wrex grinned.

John scoffed, "You ass… but yeah, they did." John grew serious, "Do what you have to do."

"Glad we have an understanding," Wrex said as he pressed the button releasing the Rachni.

Ash saw the Krogan over the Terminal; her eyes went wide as she saw Wrex pressing some buttons. Garrus stopped her before she could charge towards him. "Wait, what are you doing," she was alarmed. Ash tried to get out of Garrus' grip but just hold her tighter.

"Skipper, what are you doing? He's…" John stopped her.

"I know, give him some support when he needs it," Johh smiled.

The Rachni was released and charged at the Krogan. The creature was a lot bigger than the one in the first base, and twice as dangerous. The rachni glowed blue and knocked the Krogan back a few inches.

"What the fuck is that," Ragan looked at it. "Since when do those things have biotics?" He readied his weapon but John shook his head. The Krogan regained his footing and blasted with warp fields, making the creature stagger a little. Then the Rachni screeched angrily as it unleashed a combination of acid and biotics. Wrex growl a wild battle cry. He threw himself at his enemy with abandon and gusto. He did not care about being hit himself; he just cared about dealing out as much destruction as possible, unleashed bullets and biotic powers as his enemy. John, Garrus, Ragan and Ash looked on with awe, to the humans, the Krogan appeared like a force of nature; he was a force a nature. To the turian, he looked like a tornado of destruction.

The Rachni used its tendril to impale the Krogan, but the old battlemaster just bobbed and weaved and charged at the Rachni, forcing the creature to the wall. Wrex then punched it against the steel wall, denting it more and more with every blow. The Rachni glowed a brilliant blue and pushed the Krogan back. When Wrex was stunned, the Rachni wrapped its tendril around the Krogan's neck but failed to stab him because a chain kunai grabbed ahold of tendril.

"Now," John looked at Ragan.

But Wrex looked at Ragan, "Stay back! This is my fight and my fight only!" The Rachni stabbed at Wrex again, but this time the Krogan grabbed the tendril and got up. The chained kunai left right before Wrex swung the rachni around and around until both of the Rachni's twin tendrils snapped off and the rachni slammed against the wall, the time cracking it. When the Rachni was reeling, Wrex came up and finished it with a point-blanks shot to the body. He shot the creature over and over until his gun started to overheat. The Krogan walked over to his team, before collapsing to his knees, panting heavily.

John came running towards him, "You hurt?"

"Your sympathy is not needed," Wrex put on a predatory grin then looked at the dead Rachni behind him. "Tough sons of bitches, just as I remembered." He came to his feet again and cracking his neck. "All healed and ready."

Ash came up to them, "You sure? That was a pretty nasty fight." Wrex was taken aback by the human's concern. 'Most aren't worried about a Krogan getting hurt, must be a Human thing.'

"Centuries of mercenary work and war, and I've never fell in battle. Not going to start now," he commented.

"Really?"

John shrugged his shoulders, "Hey it works."

Wrex looked at them and grinned, he wouldn't admit it, but this group of ragtag aliens was starting to grow on him. 'Too bad they're not Krogan, they would fit in nicely, especially all three Shepards.' The team destroyed the second back, and went on to the final base; it was time to finish this.


	22. Chapter 20: The Tragedy of Kohoku

Chapter 20: The Tragedy of Kohoku

"Shit we're pinned down," Ragan yelled. He was unable to use his tech powers due to an electrical magnetic pulse. They had cleansed and destroyed two of the bases, but the last base was hell, even with a giant Krogan on their side. "Hold on for a little while, Tali and Kaiden should be down here soon. Just hold on and keep those helmets on," Ragan ordered. Garrus was shot in the knees and lying down beside Ragan. _'Fuck this shit! Now we are probably going to die before they get here._' He looked at John and throws a grenade at a trooper. But unfortunately, it was countered when a Cerberus Dragoon used lash to send the grenade back. Ragan grabs Garrus by the collar and quickly runs out of cover when the grenade lands about five inches from their position.

John looked at the whole Cerberus group and saw Garrus and Ashley were down. It was just him and Ragan. '_Come on, Rookie, you can do this,_' he thought. For the last base, Ragan asked Tali and Kaiden to help and John approved of it, he knew the last base would be the most heavily armed, so he decided to cut out the middle man and just sabotage the life support to the base, and old trick John was dusting off from his Torfan days. Of course, it was not welcomed by Tali. Ragan didn't agree with it either.

**Hours before the final assault – SSV Normandy SR-1**

_"You want me to do what," Tali was not happy with the plan John had. "John, if I do that while you're in there, I could kill you too."_

_"I agree with Tali on this," Jane spoke up. "If you die, then what are we going to do about Saren and the Geth. Or even the fucking Gojira-sized Reaper."_

_"Hey, the Reaper is not Godzilla sized. Don't worry, if we keep our helmets on the whole time, we'll be able to survive with the life-support in our suits, besides Tali and Kaiden will need the distraction," Ragan wasn't happy to hear John say that. Tali crossed her arms and glared at him. "I'll be careful, I promise."_

_"This isn't about promises, you need to stand up for it and rethink this fucking stupid play you idiotas," Jane and Ragan looked at Kaiden. "I you need to rethink and see if there is some other way. Ragan knows more about Cerberus, so he might give us a tip about the weapons they use."_

_"That is one big problem. Cerberus uses the same weapons as us but modified. A Cerberus Dragoon with have an M-3 Predator that will shoot a high velocity concussion slug. It's useless. But the base is heavily defended," Ragan then looked at the hologram. "I hate to admit it but we have to go with the fucking life support system."_

**NOW**

Ash's voice snapped him out of his daydreaming. "I hope this works, Skipper, suffocation is not exactly the best way to go. Hell no way to die is the way to go," she said like there was something wrong with his plan. Although he did this, before on Torfan anything could happen, one wrong hit from a bullet could shut down his life support, sharing his enemy's fate.

"It will, just trust Tali," Ashley raised a brow when he said that.

"You sure put a lot of trust in her, Skipper."

Ragan threw a grenade at the EMP and then denonated it. The EMP explodes and takes about five troopers with it. "EMP down, tech powers are now operational," Ragan told his whole team. "I hope Tali can do it. You need to put a little less trust in her because people will think something is wrong."

John blushed. "Just focus on the guys shooting at us." The team held their ground, until an alarm started to sound. The Cerberus troops gasped and choked for air. One by one the soldiers fell to the floor slowly dying from lack of oxygen. '_Should have kept their helmets on._' A beep from his omni-tool broke his silence.

"Shepard? Shepard, you bosh'tet, answer me," Tali's voice was full of venom for a little while. John raised his comm to answer her.

"Right here rookie, we're okay, but the way, good job," he said with a smile. The machines started to hum as they were reactivated. The team took off their helmets. Tali shook her head. "Tali?" He heard a sniff.

"Never, ever do that again. Do you know how much it scared me, thinking I was going to kill you, all of you," Tali choked. Tali started to cry and John now felt like shit for putting Tali through that, it was the last thing he wanted to do.

"Smooth move, you really know how to treat a lady," Kaiden's voice was heard in the back ground. John rubbed his head sheepishly. '_Now I have to make it up to her._'

All of a sudden they heard a scream. "Shepard get here quickly, we're being attacked by something," Kaiden yelled.

'_Tali,_' John was alarmed at that. He ordered Ragan to get Garrus and Ashley to the Normandy. Then he order Wrex to get to Tali and Kaiden's postion. As they went their separate ways, a researcher came out. They were attacked by a strange creature.

"What the hell is that," Wrex asked. He looked at Kiaden.

Kaiden shrugged. "Don't look at me, never seen it before either," the biotic Human said.

The creature looked like the husks they've been fighting, but it was green and plantlike. It had Tali by the leg and she tried to kick it off with no success. The creature was clawing it way up her body, with soulless looking eyes staring at her. She never felt such fear in her life, as she desperately tried to fight it off. "Shepard," she screaming. Luckily Wrex grabbed the creature and starts bear hugging it.

"Get the fuck away from her," John was angered and shot it in the head. He then rushed at the creature and gave it a strong biotic kick and got in front of Tali. "You okay," he asked while looking back at her and she nodded. The creature got up and lunged at John but only to get stopped by Ragan's M-7 Lancer. Once the creature fell, John tried to punch it back, but rammed it when it sprang up. When it was on top of him, the planet-like creature opened its mouth and spit a green mist on him. Tali ran and kicked the creature from John and stood in front of him. She then looked at back at John and her eyes went wide with horror.

John stated coughing and was writhing in pain on the floor. "Shepard," Ragan got to him and shook his head. "What's wrong?" She put her hand on his forehead and saw his head laced with sweat, his eyes were dilated and he looked pale like death. "Keelah, you're burning up!"

'_What's happening to me?_' He was in great pain but that stopped when Ragan place a medi-gel despencer on him. It was slowly taking the pain away. John's insides felt like they were on fire, despite it, he tried to get up but his legs were too weak and gave out. '_Got to protect Tali,_' he thought as he collapsed on the floor again. Tali tried to hold him down, so John would not put himself into anymore danger. "Don't more, you bosh'tet, you've got to rest," Tali choke.

Ragan took command. "Wrex, throw field, Kaiden on support. This thing is not getting near John," he ordered. Wrex threw a throw filed and Kaiden hit its legs with his assault rifle. The green creature stumbled on to its back, Wrex ran up to finish the job but failed when it grabbed his legs and threw him into Kaiden. Ragan got pissed at it and decided to us some advanced moves. Two punches then a quick chain kunai attachment followed by two sword swipes then he teleported behind the creature and did a shadow strike. Instead of one hit, it was three hits: One punch to the chest, then punch to the head, followed by a stomp on the enemy's chest. After it was stunned, Ragan got to the creature's head and shot it three times. Two bullets didn't do any work so the third one killed it. Ragan and the team rushed to John and Tali.

"Shepard, Shepard," Tali yelled cradling his body. Her voice was full of tears. '_Good, at least she's safe,_' he though before everything went black.

Hours later, John woke up in a familiar place, it was the Normandy's med-bay, and his head was throbbing with pain. He felt something to his left, it was Tali sleeping. '_Still cute,_' he though with a smile. John gave her a kiss on the side, she started to wake up.

"You sleep well, Rookie?"

"John!" Tali was happily ran to John and hugged him like she'd never had before. Squeezing him tightly and holing him close to her.

"Umm Tali… I'm happy to see you too but I can't breathe."

"Oh… I'm sorry I was just so scared." Tears started pouring down her face. "I thought I lost you."

"You almost did if it wasn't for that medi-gel dispenser I placed on him," Ragan was at the desk. He woke up about five minutes before Tali did.

"Hey you'll never lose me," John then kissed her mouthpiece.

"Damn this suit, I wish I could kiss you for real," she had sadness in her voice. It was like something she wanted to do with him but couldn't due to her immune system. John put his hand on her cheek.

"You can. After we get to the Citadel and I get some immune boosters," Ragan looked at them. They looked at him like he knew something. "I know you are dating. I saw it in the body language."

The med-bay door opens and Kaiden walks in. "Having fun?"

"You could have knocked if it wasn't automatic," John hated the doors now days. Kaiden crossed his arms and saw Ragan at the desk.

"You're right about that. Unless Chakwas does something about it," Kaiden gave a smirk at them.

"Yeah, yeah. So what happened," John didn't remember much. He forgot some of what happened earlier today.

Ragan sighed, "We had to rush you back, to the med-bay. Whatever that thing did was potent, but we got you to Chakwas quickly. That poison or whatever it was is out of your system. I was the one that had to help her make sure that you don't die. She's on break and I'm waiting for her to come back in."

John shook his head, "Any data?"

"It was cleaned out, except one location. Their base on Nepheron in the Columbia system of the Voyager cluster. But Hackett has men sent there now. We shouldn't worry about it," Tali was glad for that.

"Good, then we can report back to Kohoku…," he saw Kaiden and Ragan bow their heads. "Something wrong?"

"We have some bad news," Kaiden looked at John. "It's about him."

"What happened?"

"That thing we fought, we got a sample and took a DNA test."

"What was the results?"

"Extensive rewrite on the cellular level, but the blood remained mostly untouched. We matched that blood to blood of the Alliance medical database, and we got a match," Ragan said in a low voice.

John felt sick. "And," he asked grimly. He thought there was going to be something that he would regret to hear. He looked at both of the alliance soldiers, both looking sick too.

"It matched Admiral Kohoku. That fucking thing was Kohoku," John's eyes looked like they were about to explode out of his skull. Ragan didn't want to tell him but he did it anyway. The four of them sat in silence, although the completed their mission, Cerberus in their cruelty had the last laugh.

"John," Tali said sadly.

"Contact Hackett, he needs to know."

"He already does, I told him," Kaiden did that while John was being placed in the med-bay.


	23. Chapter 21: Failure and Triumph

Chapter 21: Failure and Triumph

It's been two weeks since the Cerberus incident on Binthu that left the crew with a bad taste in their mouths. Whoever Cerberus was, they were excellent in keeping their info a secret and utterly brutal to those who knows their secrets. But to Tali, she was more worried about John as he has been depressed for days. The Normandy was docking at the Citadel as the crew was going to Kohoku's funeral. John had begged to keep it closed casket, despite what Kohoku's family wanted. Tali had to agree, no one deserved to see their father or husband's body as a sick joke of science. But thanks to Ragan's story of the village burning and his wife and two daughters died in front of him, the Kohoku's family changed it to be closed casket.

She approached John's room, when she came in; he was dressed inhis navy blues. The Quarian couldn't stop staring at her Human boyfriend; she was so used of seeing him in the blue t-shirt, pants and black combat boots of the rest of the crew. She felt very aroused, but she shook the thoughts from her head, now was not the time. "You look handsome," Tali blushed when she said that. John responded with a weak forced smile.

"You look nice too," he said. Then there was silence, an uncomfortable silence. So Tali decided to speak.

"It's not your fault, John, you couldn't have known that Kohoku wold be targeted," she said softly. John lowered his head.

"I know, but that doesn't make it any better. Where's the rest of the crew?"

"They left for the funeral, we're the only one's here," John nodded in understanding as he finished with the last button on the uniform. Both of them left for the funeral.

The Human funeral was unlike anything she had seen before; it was so unlike Quarian funerals, which is more quick and simple. At first, the Normandy crew had trouble getting in, because this was Alliance funeral and most of John's ground team was aliens, but Kohoku's family let them come in thanks to John say he was a Spectre, as thanks for wiping out the people that killed the Admiral. The Quarian couldn't imagine the body in the ground, when Quarians died on the fleet, the captains would say a few nice words to the clan that lost a member, and then space the dead body, bodies took too much space and with being stuck on a ship, space was everything. Though she guessed her people's ceremony was a lot like the humans when they were still on their homeworld of Rannoch.

It was very somber; and the cries for lost family and friends filled the air, one moment got to Tali when she saw Kohoku's little granddaughter who was no more than six started crying on her mother's shoulder, while she cried also, it made her remember the time that she almost lost her mother, and tears ran down her cheeks. '_I'm glad you're safe mom,_' she thought. The funeral ended with friend and fellow soldiers offered their condolences to Kohoku's family. Tali went to look for John and found him talking to an older human, he had white hair and scar running across his face that made him look very intimidating, also he was wearing the same dress blues as John, except with more medals he looked very official looking. She overheard their converstation.

"Sir, I have info on Cerberus on Nepheron," Hackett looked at him and gave a smile while rubbing his beard.

"I know, Kaiden told me about it. I have some men on it. Don't worry about it. I'll have them deal with it. And we will avenge them," the old man said. He turns around and sees Ragan come up. "Sergeant."

Ragan saluted the old man, "Admiral Hackett, it's good to see my old CO is doing well."

"Admiral, I want to help hunt them down," John said. Ragan looked at his cousin and backed off a little. Hackett gave a quick but yet hard to hear laugh when he saw Ragan backing off.

"You feel responsible for his death. Kohoku would be flattered that the one of the first Human Spectres wants to avenge him, but negative."

John looked at him, "But sir…" The old man held up a hand.

"I know you want to go after them, but now you need to focus on Saren, think of the bigger picture," John wanted to complain but was interrupted by Hackett. "We will handle this, that's an order."

All John did was sighed and saluted him, "Yes sir." John walked away and saw Tali. "So you heard everything?"

Tali nodded, "I'm sorry, John." John didn't do anything but gave a weak smile to her and kissed her cheek.

"Thanks but I'm fine." John walked away with Tali closely following him.

Ragan went to the bar while the new couple were in the Wards, heading for the Normandy until a C-Sec officer came to meet him. "Commander Johnathan Ryu Shepard? Lieutenant Girard, Citadel Security and Banking Protections." The man said, saluting.

"What is it, Lieutenant," John was wearily at this. Today's events left him very tired and the last thing he need was for someone needing his help.

"There's a girl here, she recently escaped from Batarian space. She… Ah sir, um… she says she's from Mindoir. I'm guessing she was captured during the raid…," the C-Sec officer said.

Tali looked up at John in surprise. She remembered the night she and John talked; he mentioned it, but never more than a few words. She was concerned, but was unsure what to say.

John snapped his attention. "You sure? Is she okay?"

"Not really sir… she's… we tried to get her help, but she had a gun and shot one of my men in the foot," John got his face in shocked when he heard that. "She is held up in the docking bay…" The Lieutenant took a deep breath, "Sir… she… she says she wants to die."

Tali gasped softly, '_That poor girl._' She thought of John and looked at him.

"Where," he simply asked.

"Docking bay A02. We're trying our best to talk her down, but we're slowly losing the fight," Girard said.

"John, that's on the way to the Normandy," Tali said. John nodded and the two took a shuttle over to the Docks.

Docking A02 was surrounded by C-Sec officers, trying to talk down the girl with a gun in her hand. Each time one of the officers tried to come close, the girl would shoot at the officers, luckily she was very bad shot with the pistol, but didn't make the situation less tense. John and Tali made it to the dock. "Stand down, I'll handle if rom here," John ordered. The officers looked back and offered a salute. John looked for the person in charge and an Asari came up to them, she saluted. "Where is she?"

"Corporal Tanza K'lon. She's just up here sir, past the loading dock," the asari said so fast it was hard for John to understand it but then started playing the whole message again slowly in his mind.

"How bad is it," Tali asked. The Asari gave a curious glance in Tali's direction, but gave them answers.

"She's up there," she started by pointing to the area up ahead. "We've tried to talk her down but every time we get close she tries to shoot one of our officers. Only one officer was shot and it was at the foot."

"Anything you can tell me about her," John wanted to get every piece of clue so he started investigating.

"We looked through some old Mindoir records, we have a match. Talitha Schwartz," John flinched at the name. "You know here?" John nodded. "Good, since you know here, it will be easier, but if you can't talk her down, we got snipers lined up to take her down."

Tali's eyes went wide, "She's a scared little girl, she needs help, not someone shooting at her."

"I don't like this anymore than you, but I'm just following policy," John lifted a hand.

"I don't think so. Spectre authority. Do not shot if I can't do anything. Understand?"

"Yes sir," the Asari saluted him.

"It won't come to that because I won't let it happen. Let's go Tali."

John began to walk towards the dock, the Asari spoke of. "Wait, take this. Its sedative, but it is best not force it on her. She's been through enough." She threw a small metal cylinder with a nozzle on top to John. And the two went towards the docks. Tali looked at him and spoke up.

"How do you know her?"

John looked at her, "She's my ex-girlfriend's little sister and my sisters' friend. Her old sister died while I was trying to protect her and I thought Talitha shared her fate, but I was wrong. There's still a connection to my past still alive, I had given up a long time ago…"

"I understand John."

Tali hung back a bit but were still able to get a good look at the girl when she came into view. She was thin, almost emaciated, her head had a thin patch of brown hair that did little to hide the scars and burns covered it. Tears ran down the Quarian's cheeks, she had heard of the Batarian's brutality to their slaves, but to see in front of her, was overwhelming with sadness.

"You can go back, if you want to, Rookie," John was trying to help Tali.

Tali just sniffed and shook her head. "No, now that I've seen here I want to help even more."

Talitha whirled around at the sound of their footsteps and pointed the gun at John. "Stop! Stop! WH… Who are you," she was yelling. The pistol was shaking in her hands, her eyes darted back and forth between Tali and John.

"It's me Johnathan, it's been a long time Tal, you become pretty like your sister." John said in a friendly tone with a smile.

Talitha blinked her eyes, "H-how do you know me?"

"I was your sister's b…" he stops for a second before saying any more. "I was you're sister's friend on Mindoir, I'm your friend too, don't you remember?"

"I remember only fires. Smell of smoke and burning meat… people screaming as they cage them! As they put the metal on their backs. Wires in their brains, the pains… don't want the pain," she shook in fear.

"Talitha, it is okay. They can't hurt you anymore, and I'm here."

"I want to believe that… I didn't want to… be there anymore. In the pen… in the cages. Screaming while… while they do things to me…" She shivered, wrapping her arms around her chest protectively. Tali was angry at the thought of what she, Jane and John had suffered at the hands of Batarians. '_Damn them. Damn them all._'

"Talitha, I'm going to take a step towards you, no one is going to hurt you. I promise." Cautiously, the Commander slowly took a step towards her, Tali had her hand on her pistol; if she was a threat to John she would shoot. But John looked back and shook his head. Tali relaxed.

"Stay! Don't touch me! Never again," she suddenly snapped, the gun pointed back at him.

"It's okay! I'm not going to hurt you Talitha," John put his hand behind his head. "My hands will be behind my head the whole time, I promise." She calmed down and then pointed the pistol at the floor. She never took her eyes of his hand. "See we're friends, I grew up on Mindoir too, your family and mine were friends. You played with my sisters all the time. Do you remember Kyoko, Clare, and Serah, and Jane, my sisters?"

Tears ran down her cheeks and she smiled a little as she nodded. "We always played hid and seek, I would always win, but they never got angry with me," she then lowered her head. "Why are we alive? Why do we live and they die?"

"Jane is alive," Talitha looked at him. John lowered his head, "I don't know there have been times where I wanted to join them," he softly said. "I failed them, I should have died with them, but I couldn't… not even Jane…" Tears began to form in Tali's eyes as she watched him hang his head with pain clear in his features.

Talitha dropped the gun as he spoke but fired due to the friction. Luckily the bullet missed. Her eyes went wide. "What stopped you?"

"I had to put myself back together and keep going with my twin, because I wanted to show the Batarians, that they can't and won't break me, and to make them proud of me."

"Do you think they could be proud of me too," John nodded as he approached her. Talitah looked at him, then at his hands and back. Tears still falling from her eyes. Without warning, she jumped into him sobbing desperately as John held her tightly.

Tali gave a small smile. '_He's had so many tragedies, but he keeps going regardless. Keelah, I love him._'

John pulled out the injection-gun out of his belt. "Listen Talitha, this will make you sleep and they'll take you to a place where you can get better. Okay?" Talitha nodded as he pulled the injection-gun towards her. John pressed it gently against her neck and pulled the trigger.

"Will the nightmares go away," she asked softly. John smiled and nodded. Talitha fell asleep in his arms and John carried her towards the officers with Tali close behind.

Seconds later, a medical team was sent up with a C-Sec escort and loaded Talitha in an ambulance. Gerard came up to them and shook John's hand. "Thank you Commander."

"Just get her some help, and update me on her condition, please."

"Yes sir." With one last salute, he retreated back down the ramp, leaving John and Tali by themselves. Tali gripped his hand. "Are you alright?"

"When the Batarians attacked, do you know how old she was then? She was six years old and my other three sisters were seventeen and eighteen years old. Two seventeens, twins. They were just innocent when the Batarians attacked, they didn't deserve this…"

"No one does," Tali hugged John.

"But then when I saw Talitha, all I though was I should have done more, I should have been stronger. But here I am, as useless now, as I was then." Tali looked at John; he had tears in his eyes.

She kept hugging him as he broke into sobs. "That's not true, John, you did more for that girl than you thought. You gave her a second chance. You're not useless and don't even forget that."


	24. Chapter 22: Mo' Money, Mo' Problems

Chapter 22: Mo' Money, Mo' Problems

John and Tali went to the embassy lounge so John could cool down. With Kokoku's funeral and seeing an old friend from Mindoir, the Spectre's emotions was pretty raw. As the couple went in, they received a couple of stares from the patrons of the lounge, but Tali ignored them. She was here for Joh, not them. Tali and John sat down.

"We don't have to be here if you uncomfortable, Rookie," Tali smiled and place a hand on his cheek.

"As you would say… fuck them." John gave an amused smirk, Tali was so happy, this was the first time since after the funeral he gave that cocky smile. It meant he was feeling better, little by little. "Would you like something to drink?"

"Sure, just a cup of water," Tali nodded and went to the vender, as she was waiting for the water, an Asari in red and white dress approached her. The Quarian rolled her eyes; she was probably coming over to give her a hard time, it always the case with her people, the galaxy's punching bag.

"Sorry for bothering you, but I couldn't help but notice your friend," Tali glared at her.

"Boyfriend," she corrected curtly. The Asari's face grew surprised at the notion of Quarian and Human being together, but didn't seem to bother by it.

"Ah, don't worry I'm not interest in your Human, but I'm interested in one of the first Human Spectres." Tali narrowed her eyes at the Asari, she didn't care too much for her arrogance, nor did she trust her. The vender beeped and the water came out. "I was wondering if he would like to talk about a problem."

"Why talk to me," Tali reached for the water.

"Talking to friends tend clear any misconceptions or distrust." She looked at Tali before finally relenting, she couldn't be surprised that people would ask him, he was a Spectre after all. "I ensure you it is simple."

"Very well, but don't be surprised if he says no, he's been through a lot." The Asari nodded and the two went back to John, Tali gave him the water and sat next to him The Asari then introduced herself as Nassana Dantius, an Asari diplomat that wanted help a group of mercenaries attacked a freighter where her sister was a crew member. However they since kidnapped her for ransom money, as their family is prestigious and well known. Nassana says that she paid the ransom to the required account but that her sister was not released.

"So why to me, and not C-Sec," John had a bad feeling.

"By law, I am required to make an attempted extortion to C-Sec. However I was afraid Dahlia's safety, so I just paid them, if C-Sec find out, I could be in jail!"

John raised a brow. "Why would they put you in jail?"

"Government representatives are not allowed to negotiate with terrorists, according to the law it would encourage more kidnappings," she then saw Ragan in the background walking around to find a seat. "I would be stripped of my post and Dahlia would still be in the hands of slavers." Tali looked at John, he looked bothered by this, and she knew that family was very important to him. John then spoke up.

"Do you know where she is?"

"The last message was at in the Artemis Tau Cluster. If you do this, then I'lll give you anything you want."

John shook his head. "I won't do it for payment, I'll get your sister back. Promise." John walked away, Tali was about to walk away but looked back at the Asari. Her eyes narrowed, she simply didn't trust Dantius; she went to catch up with John. "I'm going to have C-Sec look into her files."

About five minutes after landing on the surface of Sharjila. Ragan, Jane, Tali and John were looking at what was purposively the merc base. Joker's voice is heard over the comm link, "Sharjila has a very dense atmosphere of ammonia and oxygen. Its temperate surface is mainly composed of alumina with deposits of sulfur. Comm buoys in the system have recently logged a number of unregistered vessels operating nearby. Sharjila has an extensive silicon-based, oxygen-breathing ecology. Heavily populated areas are covered with fine silica dust, the respiratory by-product of the world's higher animal forms. High-speed surface winds, often laden with abrasive silica dust, present a hazard. In area where the wind deposits a great deal of silica, footing can be treacherous. EVAs are discouraged."

The last sniper tower fell as the Mako fired the tank's gun that swiveled around as the pirates shot at the tank with their guns, but the tank mowed them down like they were nothing. They tank then shook hard.

"What the hell," John was looking around the window. Tali worked her fingers on the console to locate the source of the attack; she found it, a Krogan with heavy weapon in his hand. She then looked at the status of the mako's shields, on more hit and the tank would be destroyed. Ragan quickly started recharging the shields but failed when sparks start flying off the omni-tool.

"Fuck," Ragan cussed under his breath.

"Krogan with heave weapon," Tali said.

"Got him in my sights," Jane said. The Human activated the mako's cannon, and pressed the button, the cannon went off and the Krogan went flying off the ledge of the pirates' HQ was on. "He's done." Ragan laughed at.

"Shields won't recharge, might need to do something else. I'll stay here when you three get out," Ragan started working on the shields again and this time got parts of it working.

"No more hostiles," the team except for Ragan got out of the mako and went into the base. The team was careful with their steps as they went along the base, pirates were notorious for booby trapping their bases, and luckily these pirates seemed to be novices to that face. As they continued, John noticed how quiet Tali was since they left the Normandy.

"Hey rookie, you okay?"

"Are you sure we can trust Dantius? I don't trust her; something about all this is off," Tali had a little thought go through her mind stating that Nassana was hiding something.

"You think she might be lying?" He asked. "I don't think so, nobody would like about the safety of their family, and no one's that heartless… except for an old Earth villain, Adolf Hitler. But even if she didn't show it to me, C-Sec is looking into her files. I have a bad feeling about here but I'm not sure if the lied. I mean the story is close of hitting home."

"I hope you're right," weariness was one thing Tali hated in her voice but this time it was for good. The team came into the main room and a shot rang out and they went to cover. John peeked from cover and saw two snipers, one of the main floor and the second on the upper floor catwalk, to side was another Krogan and the rest were either Human or Turina. A box was then thrown at the team, one of them was biotic; this was going to be a messy battle.

John immobilized the Krogan in a stasis field, while Jane took care of the two snipers. Tali sabotaged the cannon fodder's weapons and blasted them with pistol fire. The Krogan broke free of the statis and was charging at the team. John tripped him with a throw field to the legs, where the Krogan landed head first on the floor. The team opened fired killing him before he could come back up. All that was left was the biotic, she blew back Jane and Tali easily but not John. The Human countered with his warp field to take away biotic barriers, the biotic was good, in fact better than the spectre thought, as he could barely withstand her biotics.

Jane and Tali went to cover to help John, shooting her to keep the biotic off-balance, she shielded herself with the boxes and threw it at the Human and Quarian. John stopped the box, and threw it back at her, but she forcing the back back to him. The box struggled under the power of the two biotics and was crushed under the power struggle. Tali saw John was losing ground to the biotic, and saw a canister near the biotic. She sabotaged it; resulting in an explosion distracted the biotic long enough for John to gain back ground, the Spectre pinned the biotic to the wall, while she struggled in vain, Jane finished her with a gunshot to the head.

Tali came over to John, "You okay?"

"Yeah, let's find Dahlia," John said out of breath. The team searched high and low looking for the Asari, could not find her anywhere. "This is strange; Dantius said he sister would be here, could she have gotten the place wrong?"

"We could have gotten here too late and they killed her," Jane said. Tali then called them, the twins went upstairs to her location. When they came up, Tali was in front of the console with a worried look on her face.

"What is it Rookie," John asked.

"You should take a look at this…" John read the data on the console, apparently Dantius was telling the truth but not the way they expected. In truth, Dahlia was the black sheep on the prominent family; her sister, Nassana Dantius, a diplomatic emissary on the Citadel, and her mother Lian Dantius, one of the major Matriarchs of Thessia. Knowing Nassana would be heavily monitored or even demoted if her sister's activities are revealed, Dahlia decides to blackmail Nassana and receives a large sum of credits as a result. In reality, John wasn't there to rescue her, but he was there to assassinate Dahlia and keep the dirty family secret from being revealed.

"I'm sorry John," Jane said.

"Let's get out of here…," John could barely contain his anger. The team left the base to face Nassana.


	25. Chapter 23: Feros part 1

Chapter 23: Feros part 1

John went back to the Citadel to face Nassana, the mission was a hoax, a glorified assassination mission to eliminate her sister from ruining their family. And John fell for it hook, line, sinker; he felt angry, but mostly at himself he should've never agreed to the mission. He was so emotional that he forgotten that not all people could be trusted. A mistake that will not happen again, he made it to the Citadel Lounge where some C-Sec officers saluted him. There was Dantius, sitting smugly and sipping her tea.

"Sir, we have orders to arrest her. Spectre authorization," said the Turian C-Sec officer.

"Granted," Ragan popped his knuckles. John gave a nod to indicate to follow his order.

John approached her. "You conniving little bitch," John growled.

"Whatever do you mean, Commander," Nassana was playing him.

"Don't play dumb. We know that Dahlia was a pirate and that you wanted her gone," Tali slammer her fist on the table.

Nassana smiled smugly, "And so the truth comes ou, it's not personal. But I couldn't let Dahlia ruin us."

"But she was your sister," Jane was looking at her with mean eyes.

Nassana scoffed, "And? Do you know how many sisters I have within my clan? Enough where losing one won't make a difference, as long as the family apparatus is intact. Now here, a little something for your 'support'," she pressed a few buttons on her omni-tool. "I hope to do business with you in the future."

John scoffed, "Don't count on it."

"Nassana Dantius, you are hereby under arrest for dealing with terrorists. Breaking Council Law "Anti-Cerberus of 2181 section five paragraph four subsection 4: "Any one that deals with money with a terrorist or mercenary group is automatically placed under arrest and any rewards given to the people that have done the job is collected at evidence," Ragan motioned two C-Sec officers to get behind her. "I suggest you give up or I will kill you."

"Fine, you may take me," one of the C-Sec officers grabs Nassana's arms and places handcuffs on her. The two officers leave the room. "She won't be able to escape. If she does, I know an assassin named Thane Krios to kill her."

The team left and went back to the Normandy. The ship took off and went into the mass relay. As the ship flew, there was a beep and the comm opened.

"John, good news, we got a lead on Saren," Joker said. "The colony of Feros has reported some Geth trouble." John smirked a little, maybe being back on the mission will help with the bad taste in his mouth from that Dantius mission.

"Joker, get us to Feros," John ordered.

"Aye-aye!"

"Feros is a habitable world in the Attican Beta cluster. Two-thirds of the habitable surface is covered with ruins of crumbling Prothean megalopolis. In the millennia since the Prothean extinction, the ruins have been picked over by looters many times. Feros was considered a poor prospect for coloization, as little open ground remains for agriculture. The only sizable fresh water sources are the pools, which are tapped by decaying Prothean aqueduct system. The dead cities, while in good condition considering their antiquity, are of uncertain stability. Ground level is congested by dozen meters of fallen debris and the air is fouled by dust. In 2178, the human ExoGeni Corporation announced its intention to place permanent colony of Feros, to thoroughly explore the ruins. The pioneer settlement was placed on the upper levels of several intact skyscrapers, using the surviving Prothean aqueducts and rooftop hydroponics gardens to support population," the Mako's VI started talking again.

"I hate that," Ragan face-palms his ownself and slowly lets the hand slide down.

"ExoGeni should get their money back, this place is in a bad way," Ashley was reading the codex. Tali nodded in agreement. Ragan didn't give a care about what company stays or goes. Zhu's Hope, the main Human colony on Feros, had been hit hard by the geth. The Colonists were repelling the Geth forces, but barely as they were constantly pounded by wave after wave of attack. John's intervention in the tunnels had driven off the latest assault. They met with Fai Dan, leader of the colony and John had ordered his team to help the colony get back on his feet.

Tali, however felt something strange about the colony, like something was out of place. After finishing up the varren hunt, the group met a strange man. "Ah! That was a good one," he laughed hysterically. John looked at the man warily.

"What the hell is wrong with you," John didn't think the man was right.

The man cheerfully, "Just invoking the master's whip! Reminds me I'm alive."

"O…kay," John narrowed one eye and had an eyebrow raised.

"Shepard, we could help him," Tali was moving forwards but was grabbed by John and shook his head.

"I don't think we can help, mentally anyway."

Tali looked at the man, he seemed to be in pain, but there were no cuts or bruises. The man shook and held his head, "The Geth…"

That caught the team's attention. "What about the geth," Jane asked.

"Thorn in the side of the -," he started but then yelled on top of his lungs.

"Thorn in the side of whom," John was confused like everyone else. Tali didn't know what to say, Jane just thought the man was mentally unstable and Ragan was trying to avoid another ear screech from the man.

The man stained as he spoke, "Must fight… but… it's like running… through… thorn bush."

Jane sighed. "We're not getting anywhere, we tell Fai Dan about this guy." Ragan, John and Tali agreed. As they walked back to Zhu's Hope, Tali looked back at the man; she knew something was wrong now. They made it back to the colony base, done with their errand for them.

"Thank you, we should be able to last a while longer," Fai Dan looked at the man that was looking at the hologram of the building.

Tali though about the man in the tunnel. "We found a man in the tunnels, he needs help."

The man that is looking at the hologram gets on is comm link, "Bravo Squad, head towards the tunnels now. Find the man and bring him here if you can. Be warned, Geth are still active."

Fai Dan looked at the man, "Maxiot, you need relax." He looked at Tali and then lowered his head. "Ian, I'm afraid there is nothing we can do but bring him back if the Geth don't ambush the people."

"He said something about the Geth being a thorn of someone or something. What did that mean," John tried to understand that when silence comes up, it means something that doesn't need to be discussed. Fai Dan and his assistant, Arcelia Silva Martinez, were hiding something. "Out with it, what's going on with this colony," John's forceful voice made everything seem like everything was about to come out. Secrets that Fai Dan didn't want the public to know about.

Fai Dan looked pale. 'They're scared of something,' Tali didn't need to think twice about that. Fai Dan and Arcelia looked at each other and nodded, "If you want to know, go to the ExoGeni building that is all I can tell you," fear consumed Fai Dan. Jane and Ragan looked at each other and shook their heads. 'Whaetever is at ExoGeni must be big.'

"Where is the building," Ragan asked. The team took the elevator that lead to the skyway after Fia Dan pointed at it. The elevator was a Human construction that must have been crammed somehow into the Prothean structure, leading them to what was basically an oversized garage pointed towards the skyway. They were ambushed by geth drones. "Get to cover," Ragan and John said together. They looked at each other and shook their heads. Everyone scrambled to what little cover the skyway had. John and Tali sabotaged the drones, Ragan did shadow strikes on most of the drones, and Jane picked them off with her sniper rifle.

The battle drew the attention of the colonists. "What happened," one of them asked.

"Geth drones, do you have weapons," the colonists nodded when they found out that John was a friendly. "Good, guard this area." The team made their way to the Mako. The garage door opened.

The view on the skyway was spectacular, despite the fact it was a war zone. The sun sent a dim light through the clouds, and the skyscrapers top of alien shapes could be seen to all sides. The skyway itself was not much a single bridge but an entire structure of different paths, something that must have been a cloud high traffic network between the towers in Prothean times. The support structures for those roads added to the alien nature of the landscape.

"I'm guessing that large white building is ExoGeni," Jane was confident about it. The road was long and full of Geth juggernauts and Geth armatures. John had to use the maneuverability of the vehicle to its fullest, using both curves and thrusters to evade enemy fire and Ragan returned fired with the main cannon that he outfitted before the mission.

"E e jigoku! Kono omona taihō wa genzai 10-bai ijō no kyōryokuna sore ga tame ni shiyō yori modesu," Ragan was speaking his native language, Japanese.

"John, we got radio chatter," Tali said. She looked at Ragan because her translator didn't understand one word but '10'. She went back to the radio and everyone heard a voice of a man and a woman arguing. "It's coming from that tunnel," the skyway led into such a covered passage, protected by walls, a roof and a gate door, the latter probably installed by Humans. As soon as they had passed it, the team got out.

"You can't just leave her, that's my daughter, you bastard," the mysterious woman yelled. The man was scattered and panicky. 'He looks like he has something to hide,' Tali thought. Tali moved her leg and a loud clang was heard. 'Kongkek' she thought.

"Who's there," the man asked. John and the team came out of hiding to a room full of security guards aiming guns at them. John and his team came out slowly with their hand up and walked into the open.

"Well this is just great," Jane muttered annoyed. The team was surrounded by a group of jumpy guards with guns pointing at them. Jane and Tali looked at both Ragan and John waiting for an order. Instead John spoke.

"If you're going to point guns at us, you better be ready for a fight," John was dead serious about that. The guards looked at each other not sure what to do.

"How would you like it if the council hunted you down for killing two Spectres," the guards start shaking in their shoes and lowered the weapons.

Jane looked on with a smirk, "You did the right choice boys and girls. Your lives did depend on that."

"Crap, I can't believe the Council Special Tactics and Recognizance is here now," the man was alarmed. The woman shook her head and stood forward. "Get back, Juliana," the man ordered and then turned to John. "Who are you? What do you want?"

Juliana rolled her eyes and looked at the panicked man. "Relax Jeong. They're obviously not Geth." She looked back at Ragan and John. "If you don't mind please state your names."

"Spectre and Alliance Navy Commander Johnathan Shepard. This is Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Alliance Navy Commander Jane Shepard. Then we have Spectre and Alliance Marines Sergeant Ragan Shepard," John greeted them with an annoyed. She could tell he did not exactly enjoy weapons being waved at him. "And for the health of everyone in here I would suggest you never do that again." He said before adding a smirk. "We're here to stop the Geth siege."

* * *

Kongkek means fuck in Khelish.

E e jigoku! Kono omona taihō wa genzai 10-bai ijō no kyōryokuna sore ga tame ni shiyō yori modesu means Hell yeah! This main cannon is now ten times more powerful than it use to be in Japanese.


	26. Chapter 23: Feros part 2

Chapter 23: Feros part 2

Jeong scoffed. "Two Human Spectres? Do you really expect us to believe that?" John glared at him and glowed blue, the security guards help up their weapons. However, on look from the Spectre made them think twice, he looked back at Jeong.

"If you want to test to see if I'm the real deal, be my guess. I would be more than happy to prove it to you. And so would he," John pointed at Ragan. Jeong gulped and shut up, Julian sighed and shook her head.

"Ignore him, he's just paranoid," she said. "I'm just glad to see friendly faces and not Geth for once."

"Do you know what the Geth are after," Jane had to ask bluntly. One thing about her. She wanted to know about this before anything else.

Juliana shook her head, "No, they just attack without any warning. It was a complete massacre. We were lucky to get out."

"What was at the labs," Tali's turn to ask a question.

"A lot of research material, that exceeds my pay grade to know," she looked at Jeong and shook her head. "But the Geth have turned the building into a fortress."

"Are there any other ways in," Ragan wanted to get some information.

"Just one but the problem with that one is that it is on top of the building. I'm sure one of you four can do it."

John nodded, "Understood, then we better hurry. It might be a clue to our mission." John and the team began to move out but Jeong got in the way. Jane shook her head in annoyance, this guy was really asking for it. Ragan popped his knuckles and then the neck.

"No," Jeong yelled. "All information in there is property of ExoGeni! The main office won't be happy."

Ragan rolled his eyes and walk past him. "You and ExoGeni can kiss my fucking ass," he then flipped Jeong off. John and the rest of the group laughed before walking out.

Jeong gave up and dropped his shoulders in defeat. "Just… just don't do too much damage."

Tali shook her head, "Maaf manusia"

Before they left, Juliana spoke up, "Commander John Shepard, before you go… My daughter, Lizbeth. She's missing…" Ragan quickly turned to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I know how it feels to lose a child," Ragan then started looking at the end of the tunnel.

Jeong snorted. "She's probably dead…," he muttered. Juliana and Ragan galred at him. Jeong cowered.

"If I find her, I'll bring her back, you have my word," John said gently. Juliana smiled and nodded.

The group made their way to the ExoGeni building; however the Geth wasn't going to make this easy. "Uh! Don't these Geth know the meaning of the word, break," Jane asked annoyed. The Mako mowed down the Geth with its cannon and guns. The tank was then rocked hard.

"What the hell was that," John, Ragan, and Jane heard Tali gasped.

"Colossus! Straight ahead," Tali yelled. The Geth colossus, where the armatures were annoying, the colossus were outright menaces, they were larger, with stronger armor and had a repair protocol. They are equipped with mass accelerator machine guns and a more powerful Siege Pulse mass accelerator cannon that can create craters in the earth.

"John, what's the plan," Jane asked while Ragan opened the door and jumped on top of the tank. "What the fuck are you doing, Ragan?" John gave back and gave a devilish smirk. Jane and Tali went pale, that smile meant one thing; John and Ragan was going to do something really stupid.

Tali's eyes went wide. "No, no, no please don't tell me you're thinking of…" Tali said before getting interrupted by the Mako. The Mako started to speed up towards the colossus. "YOU BOSH'TET," she yelled after closing the door. John ordered Ash to prep the guns. The Mako fired at the colossus while dodging siege pulse and Ragan had his magnetic boots on so he wouldn't be thrown off that easily. The Mako crashed against the colossus just before it could unleash another siege pulse, the team was harshly rocked. Ragan quickly ran up the Mako and started attacking the colossus at local area. After a few seconds, most of the wires and metal was destroyed by bullets.

"NOW," Ragan yelled. John gave a grin.

"Jane, fire the cannon," he ordered. Jane aimed the cannon and fired point-blank. The colossus broke apart violently. Ragan then quickly starts running back to the Mako and opens the door then jumps back in. Tali closes the door and gives their reckless CO and CXO a murderous glare, however John and Ragan didn't care; they were pound for their so-called 'tactic'. John looked back with a raised brow.

"What, we made it," John said sheepishly.

"Tali you want to do this or should I," Jane wanted to yell but Tali spoke.

"Of all the crazy… do you two even think before you do this stuff," Tali was yelling that it felt like their ears broke. "You're lucky, the Mako can take hits!"

John smirked, "And had an awesome engineer. You know you love it, the way I killed that Geth turned you on." Ragan was holding his breath so he wouldn't laugh, but it was so hard for him to do it.

Tali blushed and then kicked John's shin in a playful mood," I… you… but… bosh'tet," Ragan and Jane knew they were a couple and saw that Tali was also frustrated.

John jumped up, holding his shin in fake pain. "Aw come on, Tali…"

Jane raised a brow at the two arguing. Since Kohoku's funeral, they were becoming too chummy for her liking. She didn't want to say anything to them, and seeing how close she was to him was making her laugh in her mind. She liked Tali, she saw her like a younger sister, but she was not going to let Tali have him without a catch. '_Sorry Tali, but I sure as hell ain't will to give my brother up to you without a catch._' She looked at Ragan who immediately turns his head to the left and started whistling. "We're here by the way, if you're done." The two arguing couple looked sheepishly at each other and blushed.

Tali then looked at Jane, "You okay, you seem angry."

"Nothing I'm fine," Jane lied.

The ExoGeni building was large and expansive and full of rubble. The Geth had hit it hard. "Split up, if you find any Geth, don't take any chances," John motioned them to split up. Ragan placed a silencer on his M-3 Predator.

Tali shook her head. "I don't think you should be talking about taking any chances," she said annoyingly. "Considering the stunt with the colossus and that armature incident on Therum." John stiffened and blushed at that. Jane blinked at that. '_Just what did I miss on Therum._'

The group split up looking for any way in. That, however was easier said than done. Ragan climbed up by using two kunais. The main road was destroyed, likely from the geth bombardment and the inner parts of the building were surrounded by Geth barriers. No matter through how many corridors they walked, how many staircases they used, how many door frames they checked, there was always a blue energy field in the way. After a while it became frustrating.

"Son of a –, what's with the Protheans and blue energy fields," John was getting annoyed.

"One its Geth, not Prothean and two I found a way in," Tali was proud.

"Nice one," John commented, "but looks like it's a one way drop."

"We have no choice," Jane was shaking in her seat. "We'll just have to find another way out. At least Ragan is out of the Mako and climbing the cliff." John, Tali and Jane began to carefully slide down a steep rocky slope. John was the first one to get out in the open, then Tali and Jane then heard a bang and rushed to help. The two women saw John fighting a group of Varren, they went to help. John lifted them up with an anti-singularity field while Tali blasted them with her shotgun. That soon gotten the attention of a huge pack that came after them, Jane took out her assault rifle and blasted them back while John thinned the herd with his biotics.

When the fighting was done, the woman with John introduced herself, "I… I'm Elizabeth Baynham." She was shaking in her own shoes.

"Juliana's daughter," Jane asked.

She looked at Jane. "You met my mother? Is she still alive?" John gave her a nod. "Oh thank God," Lizbeth breathed out. Her voice was weak and tired, and even her knees seemed to give in for a moment, which made the team wonder how long she's been here.

"What are you doing here," Tali asked.

"Ah, it's my fault," the woman looked at Tali, then at John. "Everyone else was running and I stayed back to back up data. Next thing I knew, a Geth ship latched on and the power went out. I was trapped. I tried to get out, but the way was blocked."

"The Geth have docked a ship to the tower," John was thinking this was going to be interesting. "Why?"

Lizbeth nodded, "I think that it has to keep energy fields up. I've noticed they're laying power cables everywhere, and they seem to lead to the ship. They don't want anyone getting close… to the…"

"Told you it wasn't Prothean," Tali smirked at John.

John rolled his eyes, "To the what?"

"I don't know," she looked at the building, "but my guess is that they're here for the Thorian. It's an indigenous life form to Feros. ExoGeni was it."

Jane though back to Ian in the tunnels, "Brother."

John nodded. "Why are the Geth interested in this Thorian? What is it exactly, anyway?"

"I don't know," Lizbeth answered. "I think it's a planet being. I know it's very old, thousands of years even. But I don't know why the Geth woulhd have any sudden interest in it."

"Maybe they're taking up to gardening," that sarcastic remark made John look at Tali.

"Doubt it, but we're stuck in here until that field is disabled," Jane started looking for some things. "Hello. What's this?" Jane grabs a M-97 Mantis off the ground. "Now we are talking some fire power."

John nodded without realizing that his sister was walking away. "Time to go hunting then," Lizbeth came up to him and gave John a white and blue card with her picture and the ExoGeni's logo on it.

"This is my ID card, it will open any locked doors or data console. You may be able to find out more about the Thorian, but be careful. The Geth are really everywhere," Lizbeth sat down on the ground.

John just smirked. "More fun for us then."

"Search for somewhere safe, we'll be back soon," Jane came back and pointed at a cavern to hide. Lizbeth went in the cavern and stayed put. "Let's go," Jane then looks at Tali and John. The team went deep into the building.

"Ragan here, I found the entrance. I'm heading inside. I'll be down in the main room around five minutes. See you when you get in," Ragan then closed the comm link before John or anyone could respond.

* * *

Maaf manusia means sorry person in Khelish


	27. Chapter 23: Feros part 3

Chapter 23: Feros part 3

The offices of ExoGeni were empty, like a ghost town, except for the Geth and Krogan the building. All of a sudden, the group heard a distant, muffled song faintly coming from the main area. "Do you guys hear that? It sounds like… singing," Jane commented. She gripped her assault rifle slightly tighter; she didn't like the unusualness of it.

"It's … a Quarian singing. This is in Khelish," Tali said in awe. The group looked from the corner; they saw geth on their knees, like they were praying. '_Prayer? Geth pray?_' Tali got her shotgun ready and were about to fire, John stopped her.

"Whoa rookie, hold it," John gently lowered Tali's gun down.

Tali looked at him, "We have the perfect chance to kill them, why?"

John looked around. "I think we're surrounded." The group looked around the room and the geth had them surrounded, but they didn't attack, they seemed mesmerized by the music. Ragan gently jumps down from the vents and lands like a cat. "Jane, sniper rifle, pick them off one by one," he ordered very softly, Jane nodded and waited for Ragan to get out of the way. Jane then loaded her rifle and shot the hoppers on the wall. That got the geth's attention as they attacked. John used his stasis field, to freeze the juggernauts. Tali used a few more tech ablilites to overload the enemy shields and weapons, and then swap out to her shotgun, shooting continuously barrages with Ragan's cyro blasts and John's biotics. Thanks to their teamwork, just a few minutes later the battle was over without incident; none of them had even lost their shields.

John saw Tali wandering over to the music they noticed earlier; it played even during the battle. The source was a halo in the middle of the room, which showed a Quarian standing before an emotional audience, singing a soulful Capella. "What's wrong, Tali?"

Tali lowered her head. "That song was lost to my people for three hundred years, the Geth mocks us," she said softly. "I need to finish my pilgrimage; my people been humiliated enough."

John hugged her, she blushed. "Then we finish your pilgrimage then."

"You'll help," she looked at him.

"Of course, you're my girl; I would be pretty bad boyfriend to not help you."

Tali blushed. "Saya sayang kamu."

"What does that mean," John tilt his head.

"I love you my guardian of the soul that I give my soul to," she smiled.

John smiled back and touches her hand to her helmet. "Saya saying kamu to you too." John and tali went to catch up with Ragan and Jane.

"You two took your sweet time," Jane said with a raised brow. "What were you going on about?"

"Making sure there were no more geth left, you know," John was lying.

"Uh-huh…," Tali's comment wasn't very convincing as John's.

They ended up on the catwalk that overlooked a large hall. Two monstrous metallic machines loomed over the room from the opposite wall, both connected to a huge amount of cable and tubes, entangled in such a mess that made them look like tentacles springing forth from a monster.

"Damn, that's huge. I hate to face that thing," Jane looked at the mess of cables.

Tali commented with a subdued voice, "They use those claws to anchor their ships at the side of buildings."

"Is there any way to get it off the building," John then heard Ragan cough.

"It's difficult but the claws have weaknesses, but the Geth are very thorough," Ragan then looked at a console.

"What weaknesses," Jane was afraid of the answer that might come up. 'Too much force on them.'

"The arms are the weakest structurally, enough force on the arms and the ship will fall. The safety mechanism of the door was damaged from the ship anchoring the building," Ragan explained.

"If we close with just the right amount of power, then the mechanism will not stop it, and the door will have much power that it will cut through the arms," Tali looked at Jane.

"Sounds like a plan," Ragan looked at console. "John, Jane cover us." The twins nodded.

The ensing battle was rough, geth rocket troopers, juggernauts, and shock troopers made for tough enemies, Jane took down the rocket troopers with her sniper rifle. John lifted a metal box and crushed the shock troopers against the wall. The juggernaut fired at Jane, and the soldier fired at the canister, taking it out. Eventually the battle was done, and John and Jane stood guard. "You done," John asked.

"Done in three, two, one," Ragan pressing some buttons. The door holding the claw snapped shut and the Geth ship was rocked loose. The other claw hold the Geth ship in place could hold due to weight and slid out of the building. The Geth ship slid off and dropped like a ton of bricks on the surface below, a faint thud could be heard and then a explosion. The last thing the team saw was black smoke rising into the air.

"Nice work, Rookie and Sarge," John gave the nickname Sarge for Ragan. Tali smiled back and look at the Geth terminal.

"Oh Keelah, John. Jane, Ragan, come see this." Tali gasped.

John, Ragan and Jane saw the info and their face twisted in disgust. "My God…," Jane gasped.

"W-what the hell is this," John asked in horror. John's com beeped, it was Joker.

"Normandy to Ground Team, come on pick up," Joker was trying his best to keep the comm stable.

"We're here Joker. What's is is?"

"We have a problem, John," Kaiden's voice was in the background. "Something happened to the colonists. They've gone nuts; they're attacking the ship for no reason."

"We know what happened to them. Just sit tight. They're harmless," John then looked out the window.

"Speak for yourself, they're scratching my baby," Joker muttered.

John raised a brow, "What was that Flight Lieutenant?"

"Uh, Aye-aye sir," John got back to Lizbeth, he had some words on the nature of the data they found.

"There you are," she exclaimed. "We should get out of here, I don't think…" John threw the card at her chest.

"You lying bitch," John hissed. "You knew! You knew about Zhu's Hope!"

"I… I," Lizbeth stuttered.

John read on the file out loud, "In 2183, a small survey team was exploring the ruins when they inadvertently entered the Thorian's lair and were infected with spores. ExoGeni realized what had happened, but instead of protecting their colonists they isolated the settlement to see what would happen and study the Thorian's massive sensory and mind-controlling potential. As ExoGeni watched, it took less than a month for 80% of Zhu's Hope's inhabitants to become infected and begin performing tasks for the Thorian. After the thrall is under complete control, eventually the spores hollow them out, and they become creepers, mindless drones that only live to protect the Thorian."

Lizbeth was trembling with fear. "I wanted… wanted to help those people."

"Bullshit! Tell me one good reason I shouldn't blow your fucking brains out right here and now!"

"I wanted to stop those tests. But they threatened me. Told me I'd be next."

"Why should I believe you," John was fuming. Tali spoke up.

"Before the geth hit, she was in lock-down for her protests of the experiment," she looked at John and place her and on his hand. "Sayang, she's telling the truth."

John sighed, "I… I'm sorry."

Lizbeth shook her head, "No. I did help create this whole mess."

"Lizbeth, who was the leader of the project," Jane was going through the list of who it might be in her head.

"Jeong."

Ragan looked at them and got in the Mako, having the door opened. "We'll get him when we find his fucking worthless o shiri." They made the long drive back to the skyway tunnel, there they confronted Jeong.

"Mom," Lizbeth said happily running towards Juliana. The two hugged tightly.

"Hello Jeong," Ragan pulled out the M-3 Predator and wait for John's signal.

"Hah, Shepard," he said. "Damn it. I knew it was too much to hope the Geth would kill you…"

"So you could hide the fact you lead a test to let hundreds be enslaved in Zhu's Hope colony. That you let them go through all this pain, so that ExoGeni could have a mind control substance."

"What," Juliana was in complete shock. The ExoGeni guards looked at each other.

"He's telling the truth there's a planet life form beneath the colony. It has taken control of the colonists through its spores and ExoGeni knew all along," Lizbeth explained it.

"ExoGeni will want this place purged," Juliana gasped.

"What," Tali wasn't sure what to say now.

Juliana continued, "Now that you've figured it out, and there is a chance you could make this public, this would have huge implications on the company, so they're getting rid of the evidence."

"And you won't be telling anyone," Jeong said aiming a gun but was shot in the arm by Ragan when John lifted two fingers.

"You bastard, they're people, not your sick experiments," Jane said angrily.

The group then heard the sound of guns, being for Jeong. "What are you doing," Jeong asked in horror. The guard leader spoke.

"Acting on our conscience," he simply put it. He ordered his men to fire on Jeong and he fell dead. The leader spoke to John, "Jeong was always a snake, but I didn't think he wanted to do this." John nodded in acknowledgment.

"What now," Jane asked. John looked at her.

"We deal with the Thorian." Lizbeth and her mother gave them special grenades to knock out the colonist. The group rushed back to Zhu's Hope. It was easier going back now that they took care of the Geth. They made it to Zhu's Hope, and were met with creepers and the colonists shooting at them. The group took cover behind the Mako. "Kill the creepers, but don't shoot the colonists, the grenades will handle them." They gave him a nodded. "Let's go!"

The team fought their way through the creepers, while knocking out the colonists until they made it to the center of the colony. They were able to free most of the colonists and made it under the colony.

"It's dark," Jane then saw Tali use her omni-tool and Ragan used a flashlight that was installed in his N7 armor to light the way. Minutes later they saw the end.

"Light," Tali said. They made it to the opening and saw the huge plant creature. "Keelah." Jane for once was speechless, just like Ragan.

"We're going to need bigger guns," Ragan said. They began to walk nearer the creature, slowly drawing their weapons. There was movement among the tentacles giving the team pause. An Asari fell from the creature's mouth.

"Invaders!" it screamed so loud that it sounded like one of the mythical banshee. "Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers apprise you as meet, good only to dig and decompose."

"How cute, the talking salad has a toy," John was taunting. The Asari glared at him.

"John…," Tali was getting nervous.

"I speak for the Old Growth as I did for Saren," the Asari continued. "You are within and before the Thorian. It commands that you be in awe."

"I got a better idea, how about you fuck off and die," John charged his biotics. The Asari glowed blue and attacked. "Wipe it out," he ordered.


	28. Chapter 23: Feros part 4

Chapter 23: Feros part 4

A biotic wave hit John and lifted him into the air, while creepers came charging at the rest of the squad. "Shit," John yelled out.

"John," the alarmed Tali looked at her. A vicious battle ensued. Tali would have liked nothing more than to focus on the green Asari, but it was not possible – the squad was busy enough with keeping the creepers at bay. Several times the Quarian had one or two directly in front of her, claws ready to strike. Jane used her rifle to shoot the Asari and the biotic field dissipated and John dropped to the ground, he ten decides to return the favor and blast the green Asari off the ledge. Ragan was killing creepers left and right but was making mistakes as more of them came. He was having a hard time killing them, but John helped him out by using some throw fields at the creepers. Ragan turns on his tactical cloak but that failed when the creepers kept on pursuing him.

"Jane, Tali shotguns, cover me," Ragan said. John created an anti-singularity field and the creepers with the Asari smashed into each other. Tali and Jane pick off the stragglers not picked up by the field and Ragan ran up towards the Asari but get knock back towards the Thorian. One of the tentacles starts wrapping itself around Ragan but stops when a green liquid comes out of the N7 armor. Some kind of poison that deals physical damage.

"Can I say that I love that anti-singularity field," Tali smiled.

John smirked and looked at Ragan, "You can stand to say it more."

"Could you two joke when we're not being attacked by planet zombies," Jane was getting annoyed. Ragan runs up towards the group. Tali and John stood at attention. "How are we getting rid of this thing?"

"Look, maybe we can hit that," Tali pointed to the Thorian's root-tentacles that attached itself to the wall like an infection.

"Sound like an idea," John raised his gun and started firing. The rest of the group did the same. It took some time, but finally it fell under a hail of gunfire, and the root-tentacles dropped. A scream could be hear coming from the Thorian's main body.

"That's got to hurt," Jane was smirking. "Has to be more of those around." The screams of the Thorian alerted more creepers and Asari clones.

"Fuck this," Ragan grabs his M-96 Mattock and starts killing the creepers. "Go, I'll cover you."

John cracked his neck, "I got the Asari; can you handle the creepers?" Ragan nodded and starts killing creepers. "Okay then."

Sure enough the next wave of Creepers came running into the room – accompanied by a green Asari, glowing blue. A biotic wave hit John and lifted him into the air, while Creepers came charging at Ragan. Tali and Jane started shooting them when Ragan had to reload because the more creepers there are, the faster the attacks are for them abominations.

"Not this time, bitch," John nullified the biotic field with his own. "Eat this," he threw a warp field at the clone but she pushed it away like it was nothing. "Crap."

Ragan unleashed his assault rifle on the creepers, they dissolved thanks to the incendiary mod that John placed in it. "Johnathan," he said. The Asari clone had him pinned to the wall with her biotics. Tali rushed to his while Ragan covered her. '_You're not getting him this time,_' Tali's thoughts were running in mind like a cheetah does for hunting.

"Tali wait," Jane tried to stop her but Ragan lifted a hand.

Tali rammed the Asari and blasted her with a shotgun shot. "That that, bosh'tet," she was shocked that the Asari didn't do anything. Tali moved to John's side. Ragan quickly turned around and finished the clone by pressing the trigger to make the Mattock seem like a fully automatic.

"Well, that didn't last long," jokingly John said.

Tali shook her head, "Pribadi, don't joke about this, you almost died."

John kissed her cheek, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Tali hugged him and he did the same. "You okay?" He was chuckling for a little bit until he heard Ragan scream and get swallowed by the Thorian.

"I am now," she said with smile. John looked up and grabbed a grenade to deal with the creepers.

"Tali that was crazy…" Jane started before seeing Tali in John's arms. "What the hell is this?" Jane crossed her arms. '_Oh no,_' she thought.

"I… Uh… ohh…" Tali shuddered. John puts his hand on her shoulder."

"We're dating," John simply put it. He then saw a sword blade coming out of the Thorian but then get back in like something was pushing it back.

Jane looked at him speechless. "But…," she couldn't finish that.

John raised his hand, "We'll talk after the mission."

"Fine by me," Jane was happy about this. After all this is her older and second brother.

The team made their way up destroying the tendrils of the Thorian. Despite the tension and Ragan inside of the monster, they worked together well shooting the last tendril. Having lost six tendrils, the weight of the Thorian, suspended in the shaft, became too great for the rest to carry. With the last shriek the Thorian feel down the shaft with Ragan inside. It took a while until the squad heard a thump from the bottom. "He's gone… Ragan is dead," John then got ready to climb down but one of the pods started to move. The team then saw a second pod move, so they readied their weapons. The second pod opened and Ragan came out.

The first pod opened up and an Asari feel to the floor; unlike the clones they were fighting her skin was purple, not green. She also still wore what looked like remnants of Commando armor. It was tattered, full of holes, and some stripes of it came peeling off, the largets such case revealing her right breast. She was down asleep.

John came forwards and picked Ragan while Jane got the Asari. "Tali, help me with her," Tali nodded and they made their way above ground. They crew spent two days helping the now freed colonists get back to their feet. Later the team came to the Asari, who was now awake for questions. Ragan just went to sleep on the rocks.

"Shiala," Liara exclaimed when she looked at the Asari. She hugged her.

"Liara, you know here," The team looked confused.

"This is Shiala T'Soni, my mother's sister, my aunt," The team looked at her and Shiala nodded."Shiala, what happened to you?"

"Thank you for releasing me, little wing. I am finally myself again," John raised an eyebrow in response. "I serve… well I served my sister, Matriarch Benezia, Liara's mother. When she allied herself with Saren, so did I. She wanted to lead him to the path of less bloodshed, but she had lost her way, and so have her followers. So had I."

"How is that possible," Liara was shocked. "Mother is one of the strongest people I know, how could Saren influenced her so much?"

"Indoctrination," Ragan was still asleep but they hear what he said.

"Sare has a warship, Sovereign," John interrupted her.

"You mean the Reaper?"

"Reapers… yes. It is unlike anything I have seen before, it is enormous and incredibly powerful. And it has an insidious ability, the ability to dominate the minds of his followers. It is what that man said, indoctrination. The process is slow at first, but in the end it is there is no hope. Unless you mind-melded someone."

"And… mother fell victim to it," Liara distressed herself.

Shiala just nodded gravely and sadly. "I'm afraid so… she may not be so lucky like I was, she was the closest to Saren…," she gulped before continuing. "I'm sorry little wing…" Liara lowered her head and tears flowed, she walked out of the area.

"Garrus go check on her, she needs a friend now." Garrus nodded and walked after her. Tali did the right thing to send Garrus.

"What did Saren want with the Thorian," John looked back at Ragan and waited for him to speak but it didn't happen. '_I guess he only speaks in his sleep about something that needs to be answered and it has to deal with something important. Unless he doesn't have the facts._'

"Saren wanted its knowledge and with my biotics, I could communicate with it," Shiala looked at them and sighed. "Saren offered a trade, the Thorian knowledge for… for me…"

"Saren sacrificed you," Wrex was disgusted at this. "That sick fucker needs to be put down soon."

Shiala scoffed. "However, in the end he betrayed the Thorian. He had the geth attack the Thorian after he went, so that you could not get the same knowledge as he did," He looked around and saw everyone's expression: Shocked.

"What is this knowledge," Kaiden asked.

"The Cipher," Ragan woke up quickly and fell of the rocks. Shiala looked at him. '_Something I said that woke him up must mean something is wrong,_' she thought.

"What's the Cipher," John asked. He wanted to get all the clues before he started working on the hunt.

"A way to understand the visions of Eden Prime's beacon… Well any Prothean beacon," Ragan explained. "They were unclear, confusing because they were meant for the Prothean mind. Saren wanted it for some reason," he looked at Shiala.

"He wanted it so he could think like a Prothean, in order for him to understand those visions. Visions that are dealing with Reapers," Shaila looked at Ragan. She then saw him walk around the area.

"We need that Cipher, give it," John was breathless.

Shiala nodded, "Breathe commander. Embrace eternity." John had the Cipher, but his head was reeling with pain. It was the same sensation he felt at Eden Prime, it was a sensation that could never get used to. John felt weak in the knees and almost collapse until Ragan and Tali held him up.

"Are you okay," Concerned in her voice, Tali quickly tries to hide it.

"Yeah, just need to rest a little while," John looked at her.

Tali glared at Shiala, "If you hurt him, I swear…," she threatened. Ragan puts his hand on Tali to calm her down. Jane and Ash rolled their eyes.

"Is there a way to get it out of his mind," Ragan looked at it.

Shiala looked at him, "Yes but it will be done with some Asari that knows about ancient arts of mind-melding." Ragan then remembed that Liara knows about that and she can do it.

"What will you do," Kaiden looked at Shiala.

"If you let it, I would like to stay with the colonists. They have suffered greatly and I played a role in their suffering. I would like to make amends," John looked at her and nodded his head.

"Done," Ragan said.

"Ragan, she's too dangerous to live. All the crap that happened here was because of her and Saren." John glared at her.

"I don't kill unarmed people, you know that Ash," he looked at her. "Let it go, she wants to make amends, we should let her." Ash sighed and gave up, walking back to the ship. Before turned the corner, she glared at Tali.

They made it back to the Normandy; the tension was thick to say the least. After the meeting with the council, it was time to talk. Tali was not looking forward to it. She heard talking in the comm room.

"So what's this I hear about you and Tali dating," Ash said trying to control her emotions. Ragan shook his head, he knew Ash wasn't going to take this lightly. John didn't care but Ragan was near his breaking point with this xenophobia shit Ash had.

"Just what I said to Jane, we're dating," John shrugged.

"And you know about this," Ash pointed at Ragan, which in return gave her a cold murderous stare that made Ash jump about five inches back. "Since when?"

"Since after the Therum mission. I don't get it; you and Tali are friends, what's the big deal," John looked at Ragan who was about to go crazy on Ash, but John raised on hand up to stop it. Ragan then nodded.

"She's not even remotely human. Liara I can understand, but Tali? Does she have a face under that helmet," John glared at Ash, he lowered his hand and then nodded. Ragan got up and pointed a finger at her.

"Watch it Williams or I will let Ragan give out a piece of his mind," he hissed. She was taken aback at how mad he got at the remark. "Just because you're jealous of her, doesn't give you the right to disrespect her."

"Jealous," Ashley exploded. "Of her?! She's not even out species!"

"And this is exactly why you were the last to know; because of this is how you acted. Ragan, now," John gave Ragan the order.

"E-everyone else knew," she looked at Ragan and he just was thinking to himself. He wanted to wait for the right moment.

John sighed and nodded, "Yeah, they know. The truth was that I wasn't even going to tell you, because of how you felt about aliens. You're a fucking xenophobic."

Ash looked hurt, "So you didn't even trust me, because of you thought I was the racist bitch, huh? Nice to see how you really feel about me."

"Ash…" he said now regretting this talk.

"I have enough reasons to be...," Ragan slammed his fist on the wall. She looked at him and he just gave her a murderous stare that made her feel like she was made out of ice and he was the fire.

"ENOUGH OF YOUR FUCKING XENOPHOBIC VIEWS, GUNNERY CHIEF ASHLEY BRIANA WILLIAMS! I had enough of it. The crew as enough of it. As CXO, I can kick your ass off the ship right now and I won't give a flying fuck about it," Ragan was red as tomato. Ash looks at him and nods her head.

"Sir, yes, sir," Ash said then saluted Ragan. "Do you even lover her," She asked softly.

"Yeah," John said. She didn't say anything and walked out and saw Tali.

"Ash…" Tali started.

"Don't," the Gunnery Chief did her best to sound sincere though she was hurting inside. "I hope you two are happy together. I've got gear to clean." She walked away.

Tali came in and saw John. She knew that he was in pain. "John…"

John didn't say anything; Tali came to him and hugged him tightly. '_Keelah, I didn't want this._' Unfortunately, it was what she got.


	29. Chapter 24: Liara's First Mission

Chapter 24: Liara's First Mission

"Keep it up, Li," Garrus dodging the Asari's blows. It was another early day of training in the Carbo Bay for Liara and the woman was driven, more than she's ever been since she came on board. Garrus thought it must have been the revelation of her mother, Matriarch Benezia, was brainwashed into working with Saren. But if Ragan is right about Benezia being indoctrinated, then this complicates the mission. Liara kicks Garrus high with a round kick, but the Turian blocked it easily, and swept her legs, sending her to the floor. "You're too predictable, that's easy way to getting yourself killed."

Liara nodded and then grabbed Garrus' legs with hers and sends him down to the ground. Ragan laughing at that. Liara got up with Garrus and tried again. Punching and kicking Garrus while he dodged, she had improved slowly but surely. The first tiem she started to train, she barely could hold her own, but after a while she was keeping up with them. Garrus had a growing sense of pride in her improvements; then again she was now mostly spending time with him. Although John, Jane, Ashley and Ragan was still helping with training Liara, things were tense between the four. Ragan and Jane were siding with John and Ashley was still being the xenophobic as ever. John would have to talk to Ashley later. The training continued, as Liara was no on defensive dodging Garrus' blows, she was reacting faster and then something surprising happened. She grabbed his arm, swept his leg and tossed the Turian over her shoulder. Garrus found himself on the floor with a really bewildered look on his face. He was not alone, as the others looked shocked too; Liara had a grin of satisfaction on her face as she helped Garrus up.

"Damn, never see the day that quickly," Ragan muttered. John and Jane looked at him and gave a pat on his back.

"I hope I didn't hurt you too much," Laira jokingly said.

"Lucky move, I get you next time," Garrus huffed. Then he smiled at her. "But really nice job, Li." Liara blushed, just then the intercom opened.

"Commander, incoming message for you, patching through," Joker said.

"Commander, we need your help again," the hologram of Hackett came up. "A group of biotic extremists had captured Chairman Burns of the Systems Alliance Parliamentary Subcommittee for Transhuman Studies. They are holding him hostage on board of MSRV Ontario. Protesting his vote against providing reparations for L2 biotics."

John frowned. "Men, women, leave us. Except for you Ragan." Ragan shook his head while the rest left the Cargo Bay. "What kind of resistance should I expect?"

"The biotics were seen bringing equipment on the ship, so expect traps and mechs."

"And the chairman's priority."

"I would like for him to live, but we have to make it clear, that such tactics is unacceptable," Ragan looked at the hologram with one brow raised. "The top priority is to neutralize the biotics." Ragan then shook his head before speaking up.

"Sir, I'm not sure if we can. I say we get the chairman as our priority otherwise things would get…"

"I know what you mean but we can't have the biotics running around and trying to find a way disrupt operations. Even an operation that has biotic implants involved."

"Okay, on it," John said and gave a growl towards Ragan.

"Updating your galaxy map, Hackett out," John looked back at Ragan after the hologram left. If they were going toe to toe with biotics, they were going to need the best in that department and some hackers also, it was time to take off the training wheels for the asari.

"Go get Liara and Tali, I want them down here. Tell them to suit up," Ragan looked at him with a surprise, but eventually nodded and went to get her. John went upstairs to get ready also.

"The Ontario is a Kowloon class modular conveyor of Human design with a little bit of Asari, configured for mixed freight…" Ragan turned off the VI and added a lock on it. John and Tali looked at him like he hated the thing.

"Good now I don't have to listen to the whole thing," Ragan looked at them. "If it doesn't tell us anything that is dangerous, then it's fucking useless."

The Normandy docked with the Ontario quietly and safely, with the ship dead in space it was easy enough to do. John, Tali, Kaiden and Liara came on board expecting trouble, but luckily there weren't any enemies in the entry area. As they went further in, Ragan quickly jumps in the vents and starts moving towards the center area. Tali heard footsteps coming from the Main Cargo Hold, from the sound of it there were lots of them.

"Everyone, watch your backs and expect traps," Tali and Liara nodded, as the team came in, alerting the biotics, the terrorists started to glow blue and threw a couple of throw fields at the team. Liara went in front and created a barrier blocking it. John and Liara then created their own singularity fields, lifting box and other biotics in the air. Tali saw a canister and overload it causing it to explode. The comm opened.

"Commander, we got movement in the front," Joker said.

"Got it, Joker. Wipe these clown off the map," John ordered. Tali and Laira nodded and continued to killing the biotics to slow down John's team. A canister was then thrown at the team, and pierced, they moved out of the way as the canister exploded. Ragan then breaks the vent cover and shoots two biotics in the head and throws one at the wall followed by Tali shooting him with a shotgun. John threw one of the biotics back hard against one of her allies, Tali sabotaged the biotic's weapons and took a lot of them out. Liara engulfed the rest of the biotics in a singularity field and shot them one by one with her pistol. The comm opened again.

"John, better hurry. The chairman's on his knees," Joker was pleading for them to get to the chairman quickly. "I think the leader is ready to execute him."

"Right, we're done here," John then looked around and grabbed a new weapon that can be helpful. Grenades that have an orange stripe and a fire hazard on it. Then gave two of them to Ragan and two to Tali. "Everyone to the front." Once the team reaches him, they now had to deal with the leader of the extremists who is holding burns at gunpoint. The team was in delicate situation, if they become hostile, the extremists will shoot Burns and then it would turn into a bloodbath.

"See how it is? You write letters and everyone ignores you. Force is the only thing they appreciate," the leader then saw Ragan and went wide eyed. "Fuck the Alliance is here."

John frowned. "It's also a way to get people killed, now let him go and stand down."

"You don't get to order me around; I'm holding all the cards," He was right but not for one thing. Ragan got his gun ready and looked at him.

"You will listen to a Spectre if you value your life," Ragan raised the gun at the leader, who was trembling in his shoes. "If you value your life, stand down or we will kill you and everyone but the chairman in the room." John looked at him and remembered what Hackett said. Ragan was doing the peaceful way he knew to make the biotics stand down.

"Please, I was trying to help you people," Burns said but the leader punched him in the back of the head.

"Everyone calm down, let's not do anything we're going to regret," Ragan looked at John and gave a nod.

"Why not? Why do we have to lose," the leader asked. "Since the Chairman decided that we don't get reparations, we have nothing left."

"B… but I've changed my mind seeing you all, it… it's clear to me… you al deserve…" The leader frowned and held the gun deeper to the chairman's head. This situation was getting out of control fast, they were dealing with a very desperate man and there was nothing more dangerous than a desperate man… unless you're John Shepard.

"Don't patronize me! You had your chance, some L2s are nearly crippled because of the implants, but you voted against reparations," the leader slowly pulled the trigger but Ragan shot the gun out of his hand.

"Don't be stupid, if you kill Burns, not only you'll be on the Alliance hit list, but you'll lose the one man who can help you," John was looked by the leader, with narrow eyes looking any trick the Spectre may try.

"Yes if you release me, then I can take another look at the reparations request," Burns was shaking.

The leader scoffed, "We're supposed to believe you?"

"I'm sorry to say this, but you don't have a choice, because if that Human dies, we will be forced to kill you," Liara gave a grin. "And your efforts will be for nothing, please see reason before our Spectres shoot you."

"Look, I'm an L2 like you, trust me I know what you're going through," Ragan looked at them. "My commander can make sure Burns follows through, you can trust him, but only if you give him a chance. Sure the Alliance took the biotics away because of happened to my spine three years ago. But I'm still alive after my spine was burnt. They had to keep the implants in because most of the parts were fused with bone and if they took the bone out, I wouldn't be able to walk."

The leader frowned, "Sure you promise us freedom, but as soon as we surrender, you'll double cross us."

"I never said I was letting you go, all I'm saying is that Burns will take another look. Isn't that right," John waved his hand towards Burns.

"Absolutely, I had no idea the L2s were this desperate… and did that to the spine," Burns shuttered when he was thinking of what happened to Ragan's spine. "If I had known that…" John smiled at that, it looked like Burns was getting it from the remorse in his voice. "The reparations will come, for whatever its worth, I promise. And if they don't you can sue the people." The leader looked on thinking about it for a while, he sighed and dropped his weapon to the floor after placing it in safety, ending the standoff peacefully.

"You're right, I don't want to die. Maybe something will happen this time. We surrender," the biotics looked at their leader and dropped their weapons.

Burns stood up facing the team. "Thank you Sergeant and Commander, I'll see to it the reparations come."

John nodded with a smile. "A Fifth Fleet cruiser will come and pick you and the 'prisoners' up." The team left the Ontario, to give his report Admiral Hackett.

"Thank you for dealing with the hostage situation, Sergeant and Commander," Hackett's hologram was then looking at both of them. "Chairman Burns was quite impressed with how you both ended this situation peacefully. Your assistance above and beyond formal duties has been noted. Fifth Fleet out." John smirked as Hackett's hologram vanished. John then went down to Liara's room, she was on the cot exhausted from the mission; not surprising considering it was her first one. The Asari jumped up when she saw John, to this day he doesn't know why she keeps on doing that.

"Commander!"

John chuckled and shook his head. "At ease, T'Soni. I just came in to tell you good job on today's mission."

"Oh, thank you Shepard."

"We'll still continue your training, but expect being called on for mission," John had a smirk. "Welcome to the ground team, Liara."


	30. Chapter 25: Colony of the Dead

Chapter 25: Colony of the Dead

A month had passed since that fateful encounter with Talitha at the Citadel. John kept in touch with her when they were not on missions, because it would help Talitha recover from her trauma of being in Batarian custody for so long, and it also helped John with his own healing with Mindoir. Tali could see it in his face, John seemed happier, and other than Ashley, he was joking a lot more with the crew other than the Normandy's ground team and as a plus, their relationship was stronger. Tali and John were lying in the bed, it would be long time before they could do more other than lie on the bed, but it didn't matter. They both simply enjoyed the presence of one another in the peaceful silence of their cabin. It was a huge surprise to her when John asked her to move in with him in his cabin.

**Three weeks ago – SSV Normandy SR-1**

_Tali was moaning, she didn't get much sleep, the sleeping pods may have been quiet (something she got use to a long time ago) but it sure wasn't comfortable, her back was killing her. A Quarian that had not a good night sleep was very, very irritable. Something John had learned the hard way._

_"Morning, Rookie," John smiled at her. Tali glared at him._

_"Shut up," she growled. John just looked at her._

_"Someone's angry, must be that time of the month again," he joked. Tali narrowed her eyes at him and kicked his shin hard._

_"Bosh'tet," she said annoyed._

_"Geez, I was joking, no need to try to break my legs," the pain was all John can think of. "What's wrong?"_

_Tali sighed. "Sorry couldn't sleep."_

_John raised a brow at that. "Too quiet to sleep?" Tali shook her head._

_"No, the sleeper pods are so damned uncomfortable," she growled. "How can you Humans stand it?"_

_John chuckled a little. "A strong back for one," his next words completely surprised her. "Why don't you try sleeping in my bed tonight? Maybe we can share the cabin?"_

_Tali blushed. "Sleep in… your room? In your bed? I – wow, I… uh, thank you, that's very generous, but I don't know if that's – are you being serious?"_

_John nodded. "Sure why not? Everyone knows we're dating at this point and I doubt someone is going to say something."_

_Tali tried to calm down a little, "I don't know John, isn't that a big step for us to start bunking together." John just smiled at her._

_"I suppose, but you want a place comfortable and I want my girlfriend by my side. Win-win, I say." Tali lowered her head, John aved his hand nervously. "Oh, shit, whatever I said, I'm sorry, I was an idiot."_

_Tali shook her head. "No, you didn't say anything wrong, but… you know we can't do anything," John said sadly. "I'm stuck in this suit…" John lifted her head._

_"Doesn't matter to me, I'm doing this because I care about you," he gently made her determined with his words._

_"I'll figure something out," Tali responded. "I promise."_

**NOW**

Her thoughts were broken by the sound of John's omni-tool. It was Joker. "What is it, Joker?"

"Come to the cockpit, you've got to see this," Joker's voice was a little hoarse.

John sighed and looked at Tali, "See you later, Rookie." John left his cabin to go to the cockpit, Tali decided to go down to Engineering, she was sure Adams needed her help. When she got to the elevator, she ran into Ash and Ragan. Ever since the Ash found out John and her dating, their relationship had cooled, they were still professional, but the atmosphere was tense much like the elevator ride.

"So, how are you and the Jane's brother doing," Ash's question had no emotions at all.

"Uh f… fine, you know… uh fine," Tali was trying to keep it together. The elevator stopped on the floor.

"Great," Ash looked at Ragan, who was shaking hi shead. She went to the weapons bench and Ragan went to the Mako. Tali went back to Engineering, she looked back as Ash and sighed sadly. She hped they could be friends again.

The team was riding along in the Mako when the VI voice came online. Ragan looked at it and though of something he never thought he would do at all.

"Chasca is…," Ragan quickly grabbed the Mako's VI box and tore it out. Everyone looked at him like he was going to lose his temper. John just shook his head and Jane face-palmed her own face.

"Someone want to tell me why this is doing this. I had a lock on the fucking machine and I'm the only one that can activate it," Ragan looked around and saw them glaring at each other, waiting for someone to confess. Ragan just forgot about it and seats back down in driver's seat. This was the first time John wasn't driving the vehicle and he wanted to know if Ragan is good on Chasca.

The silence was course awkward because John had decided to bring along Ragan, Jane, Tali and Ash for the mission. Tali wondered why, considering the tension was a risk to the mission, but John explained it would be good, something about danger repairing disputes. "So, John, what are we doing here," Tali didn't want be in the same room with Ragan now that he scared her with the little VI box incident. But she didn't want to stay in the same room with Ash.

"Joker caught wind of an SOS on this planet," John looked at Ragan who is driving like a calm person. "We look for any survivors, Rookie, you'll exact the data, and Ash, I, and Jane will cover you. Ragan will be staying back and INSTALL THE VI BACK!" Ragan looked back and shook his head.

"Understood commander," Ash said. The Mako drove up the ledge, where they saw a horrifying sight, dragon's teeth, lots of them around the area. John had told all four of them about the dragon's teeth, the huge spikes that Geth used to turn human corpse – and other unfortunate living victims – into husks. Tali felt great sadness when she heard about Ragan's parents were victims. His mother was John's aunt, his father's sister, at the sight of them, the Geth weren't satisfied with ruining her people's lives; they seek to ruin other's lives also. "Just like Eden Prime, dammit… Commander…"

"I know, if there's this many we can forget about seeing survivors," the Mako parked on the side of the building, and got out. Ragan was angered about this. Tali looked around quite nervously, when there are dragon teeth, husk are not too far behind. She heard feral growls behind her, she turned around and latched on to John. "Whoa, rookie, what the hell?"

"Sorry I heard something," she then saw Ash laughing but Ragan slapped her on the back of the head. Ragan knew what was going on, she was the one making the noise. She was going to say something, but John beat her to the punch.

"Not cool, Ash. Knock it off. I'm glad Ragan slapped you," John frowned.

"Sorry, Commander." Team went inside the building, Ragan stayed outside so that he can make the quick escape plan work. It was quiet, too quiet, husks weren't known for stealth, they nothing more than wild animals now, but see nothing was really making them team nervous. And then another growl. Jane, Tali and John glared at Ash. "What? I'm not doing it this time." Another growl, Ash was right, it wasn't her, the team got out their weapons as the growls had gotten louder. And then a scream of pain. John and Tali looked back and saw Ash grabbing her side, and cybernetic zombies going in for another hit until a shot rang out. Tali blasted the husk with her shotgun, and then a symphony of growls made themselves known.

The twins and Tali surrounded Ash, while she applied medi-gel to her wound. The husks had other ideas as they charged the team. John glowed blue and used his singularity field tossing some of the husks like rag dolls. Tali took care of the stragglers with her shotgun but the soulless creatures kept on coming. If they didn't do something quick, they were going to be overrun. Jane froze most of the husks while John kept doing biotic attacks. John then decided to throw a grenade at the husks, and the husks were scattered, letting Ash patch up, and Tali to kill the rest with Jane covering her. The battle was down and Tali went to the terminal in the back.

"Oh Keelah…"

John looked at her, "What is it, Rookie?" John and Jane looked at the data and their eyes went wide. The colony was actually an ExoGeni research colony, they were working on samples on husks, until Cerberus asked for it, but something happened. Someone from the research team unleashed the husks, and they slaughtered everyone, in the logs of the last survivor, it was revealed that the one who unleashed the husks was a mole for Cerberus, as a way to cover their tracks. John frowned, "Cerberus… those bastards again."

"But Admiral Hackett and the Fifth Fleet, dealt with them a month ago," Jane looked at the comm link.

"Not at all. The Alliance found more projects. The project you are at is Project Husk," Ragan's voice is heard over the comm link.

"Cerberus may be a bigger problem than we thought… come on, let's get out of here," John said. The team got out of the base, fighting more husks as they got out. When they returned to the Normandy, the ship was ordered to blast the dead colony to oblivion. The Normandy then flew away; they never wanted to see such horror again.


	31. Chapter 26: Folly

Chapter 26: Folly

John was up early making his rounds, it was something he always saw Anderson do, when serving under him. At first he didn't understand why he did it, but Anderson told him that it was the best way to build loyalty with the crew. John was hoping use the rounds to clear up the cold relations with Ash, he may have dated Tali, but that didn't mean he wanted to lose the Gunnery Chief's friendship. John went down to the lower deck, he was going to start with Ash first, but when he got there he was disappointed that Ash wasn't there. Ragan was at the bench and working on the weapon modifications. John sighed and continued his rounds. After finishing his talk with Tali, the last one on his list was Garrus, who was pacing around the Mako. The Turian was restless, which was strange because he was a chill customer most of the time, John went to check up on him.

"Something the matter Garrus," John wasn't sure.

The Turian looked at him. "Hmm? Oh Commander, didn't see you there," Garrus said. He continued his pacing.

"You seemed to be nervous about something, what to talk about. Problems with Liara?" Garrus stiffened, John knew how close the Turian and the Asari had gotten when they were training together. Garrus cleared his throat and regained his composure.

"Ah, no, it's not that, it's about Saren," John raised his eyebrow at Garrus. "Just wondering if we'll ever find him, he's always one step ahead of us and he's got those damn Geth," Garrus continued his pacing. "He can't get away, not like the last one."

John tilted his head. "Last one?" Garrus looked at John and sighed, this was going to be hard for him. John could tell. "Look you don't have to tell me, if you don't want to."

"No, you've been patient with me, even when I screwed up…," Garrus said. "Dr. Saleon, he was the last one to get away, the only one…"

John sat down on the Mako. "Who is he?"

Garrus then told John about Dr. Saleon, a Salarian geneticist who used to work on the Citadel. A few years ago, Garrus was assigned to investigate black market trading on the Citadel, and found there was an increase in the sale of body parts. C-Sec was unsure whether it was a lab selling organs illegally or if a psychopath was dismembering people, yet the situation turned out to be more complex than that. Garrus ran a DNA check on a recovered Turian liver, only to find the supposed donor was very much alive. He later found than this Turian had worked for Dr. Saleon. Garrus inspected Saleon's lab, but there was no sign of any clone body parts nor the machinery to grow them, " – no Salarian hearts, no Turian livers, not one Krogan testicle."

Running out of ideas, Garrus brought in some of Saleon's employees for a 'chat.' During the interrogation, one interviewee began bleeding and the C-Sec medics found that he had fresh incisions all over his body. It turned out that Saleon was using his employees – who were usually poor and desperate – as living test tubes: cloning their organs, growing them inside their own bodies, then removing and selling them, giving his employees a small percentage of the profits. If the organs failed to grow properly, Saleon would simply leave them inside the body with dire consequences for the employee's health.

C-Sec went to arrest Saleon, but, knowing his operation had been discovered, Saleon destroyed his lab, snatched some of his employees and fled the Citadel on his ship. But what happened later was that Saleon was later presumed dead after he hacked into Citadel records and deleted every account he had. He then deleted all records that was about him and his ship. Garrus wanted the Citadel Defense forces or D-Force to shoot Saleon down but C-Sec overrode his orders and D-Force never got the order since the vessel was too close to the station and Saleon escaped.

John frowned, "I see why you're so focused on Saren, I would hate that too."

"For the last couple of years I've tried to find that bastard. One of my contacts thinks he found him, only under a different name… Dr. Heart, his idea of a joke."

John scoffed, "A sick joke…"

"Dr. Heart is dead," Garrus and John looked Ragan. They thought he was silent and wasn't listening. "Dr. Heart died by an Warlord Okeer."

John's comm opened, it was time for another mission. "Duty calls, Garrus. I still don't believe Ragan knows about something about that and never told us. I guess we never asked him anything." Garrus looks at Ragan, who was nodding in agreement with John.

Garrus then looks at John, "I'm sure that his ship is still salvageable for us to sell some items. We could use the money for better parts and make this M35 Mako to a different vehicle. Something like a M40 Megalodon. Thank you Commander, maybe this will help me focus on the mission."

"Unfortunately…," Ragan looked for the Mako's VI box and was shocked. He then looks at the area that he tore the VI box out of the Mako and screamed.

"How does it do this," Ragan was about to start shooting the whole area where the box use to be.

Kaiden and Tali were laughing at Ragan. John just shook his head and looked at Ragan, "You need to calm down. Destroy my baby, I kill you by ripping your spine out and freeze your body then smash your body with the spine." Ragan's face showed fear and sat down. John was laughing.

The Mako landed on Nodacrux. Upon landing, Kaiden notice some enemy signals on the radar. "John, we better watch our backs. I'm reading multiple enemies not far from us." John nodded and drove from the south, to a road with switchbacks providing easier access to the facility. When they approached the facility, multiple green humanoids rush at the tank, John recognized the creature, Thorian creepers. Garrus loaded the gun and took aim at the plant creatures, and fired. The Mako's guns mowed down the creepers with no problems, lucky for them while the creepers were dangerous, they weren't very smart. The battle ended and the team got out of the tank. Ragan, Garrus, Tali, John, Jane, and Kaiden got their weapons ready.

"Thorian creepers… fuck…," John said frowning.

"I thought we wiped them out a month ago, don't tell me there are others," Kaiden was confused.

John shook his head. "The Thorian was native to Feros, these things were brought here," he got his thoughts gathered. "Come on, let's go in." The team entered the facility; they were met with a sight of dead soldiers and scientists. Along with some dead creepers, the people of the facility must have tried to fight back, but was overrun by the planet creatures, which meant there were more of them deeper into the base. John took point and went into the next room first, he heard a growl and the first creeper came up and rushed the team. John pushed it back with a throw field and Ragan shot his pistol five times to the head, while Kaiden and Garrus took down the rest with incendiary modded guns. Tali and the others were covering John and Ragan. More of the creepers came at the team, John had underestimated how many there were.

"Fall back," They retreated to a long, narrow hallway, but luckily for them the creepers were not smart enough to follow one at a time. So the team let them come at them, funneling the Creepers into a bottleneck, making them easy prey. John glowed blue and used his singularity field, the swirling biotic storm slammed the creepers into each other and the walls, while rest got the stragglers, ending the battle. The team then went to search for any survivors; they went to the back and met with some scientists who are holed up in a room to the left.

"Rescuers? Thank god," the woman got up and faced her colleagues. "See? I told you someone would investigate that signal."

"Who are you," Ragan asked.

"Dr. Sylvia Ross, Chief ExoGeni…," she quickly saw John and the others lift their guns and aimed them at them.

"ExoGeni tried to kill us on Zhu's Hope. No way are we taking chances," Garrus looked at John then a Jane. "How do you want to deal with this?"

"Please, I'll answer any questions," Ross said. "We were almost out of food and water, and you got here just in time. Let us go after you ask your questions."

"Karera ni shitsumon o shite kudasai. Watashi wa sorera no... Monogoto ga modotte kuru mae ni, koko ni shitakunai," one of the scientists said.

"Fain ga, rūpu no soto ni anata no kusopantī o tamotsu," John was speaking in Japanese. Ragan got his weapon ready by aiming towards Ross.

"Thank you," Ross then looked at the scientist that spoke in Japanese. "Careful there."

"Why the hell are Thorian creepers here," John didn't want his time wasted.

"How do you know about the Thorian?"

"I killed it a month ago."

"I see," Ross sighed. "So the jig is up, so to speak. These creepers were created using altered from the ones on Feros, we found out we could turn them docile and obedient servants. Everything was going fine, up until a few days ago, the creepers then went berserk, only a handful of us made it to this room."

"The created will always rebel the creators," Ragan said it bluntly. "Look at the Krogan when the Salarians uplifted them. And the Geth towards the Quarians. Do you not learn anything from history class in school?" Tali laughed at that because it was true. Krogan got uplifted by Salarians to fight the Rachni then they went crazy and attacked the Turians and Salarians. Geth were created and they started disobeying orders, then the first shot was made by a Geth until towards an admiral – which kill the admiral.

"So you fucked with something you shouldn't have, and it bit you in the ass," John looked at Ragan. "Ragan is right about that. 'The created will always rebel the creators,' has happened and you are just repeating history. I've heard enough, you're coming with us."

Ross and the other scientists became to pale. "Look, we did wrong, I know that. There's no need to report us, right?"

Garrus frowned. "You were responsible for the safety of the staff and you left them to die. You might as well killed them yourselves."

"And yes, the Spectres will be reporting you and order ExoGeni to be shut down. Plus Cerberus got into ExoGeni and killed everyone at one of your bases," Jane holstered her M-351 Firestorm.

"Be reasonable, if I go to jail how does this help anyone? Normally ExoGeni would have my back, but they have a mess to clean up, so how about this? If you let us go, I'll make sure you'll get paid for your efforts."

"Bribing us is not going to help, we're taking you in," Kaiden said while Ragan pointed at her.

"ExoGeni needs to be shut down. Look at all the fucking problems they have caused," Ragan was speaking with pure brimstone. "If ExoGeni is for the people, they wouldn't be doing this crap. They are just like Cerberus. And they need to be trailed and executed – well the people that authorized the projects."

Ross frowned. "That's not…"

"Shoot us and live to tell the tale, you will get hunted by the Citadel Spectres. If you value your lives, put the guns down," Tali looked at them. Ragan then got his chain kunai ready. "So drop the guns and you will live."

Ross looked at them and dropped her gun. "Okay, fine what now?"

"Time to take you in," Ragan grabbed her and walked away while the others got the scientists out of the room. "So, time for you to get trialed and executed." The team went back to the Normandy and got everyone onboard. Ragan was placed to keep a constant eye on the prisoners.


	32. Chapter 27: Gift from the Heart part 1

Chapter 27: Gift from the Heart part 1

It was nighttime on the Normandy. Tali was sleeping with John in their bed when a beep was heard from her omni-tool, waking her up. '_Just when I had a good dream too,_' she thought annoyed. As she got out of bed, she took a look back at a sleeping Shepard. She ran her finger down John's bare chest and smiled. '_Humans are so varied but I can definitely say white is my favorite color,_' she though. She heard John snorting in his sleep and gave a small chuckle. '_One day,_' she though hopefully.

She activates her omni-tool and stiffed up, it was her father. "A-ayah… h-hello," she was nervous. Rael'Zorah vas Rayya, admiral of the Mirgran fleet was an intimidating man, even for a Quarian standard, the man didn't yell, after all when you're one of the most powerful people on the fleet, yelling wasn't needed.

Rael looked at her. "Tali'Zorah, where are you? It has been months since your last communication and I haven't heard a word from you," his voice was stern.

Tali paled and looked back a John, still sleeping peacefully in the bed. She couldn't tell her father that she was sleeping in the arms of not only her captain but her human boyfriend, she knew her father too well to know where that conversation would lead. She shudders as she thought about John meeting her father. '_A fight waiting to happen._' She did the next best thing; she told him half the truth.

"I'm on the Alliance ship, SSV Normandy SR-1," proud voice from her mouth.

Rael raised his brow. "How do you expect to find something of value to our people on the human ship?"

"Commander John Shepard ask me to join his crew, a Turian, Saren that is now an ex-Spectre," Rael's eyes got wide, "is being hunted by him. And I had evidence for it. Plus the Geth attack. I have the evidence but it's not any use. I'm still looking for some value."

"At least you are doing the right thing," Tali was shocked when she heard that. Then she felt a five finger hand on her shoulder. She quickly turns around and finds Ragan behind her.

"Ragan…"

Rael quickly narrowed his eyes, "Ragan Shepard... What are you doing here?"

"Rael'Zorah vas Aleria, it's good to see you again. I'm sorry for this but I don't have time to talk. I was fixing some items in the Captain's Cabin with Tali here. The power went out about five hours ago," Ragan lied to him. He didn't like Rael that much. Rael was mean to him when Ragan was forced to help the Quarians have a treaty with the Geth and Humans. Ragan then left the cabin before Rael could ask a question.

"So a rogue Spectre is now an ex-Spectre is out there with the Geth. Keelah," Rael was about to go crazy when he heard that. "You are doing the best thing. Even though the galaxy hates us, we still have to pull our weight around to help them. Even if they don't want it. And the Geth is our responsibility."

"Thanks dad. How is mom," Tali then saw Rael's head bow down. She knew that was a bad sign.

"Your mother passed away. The Bhuyis was destroyed. Geth sneak attack. But I know better. It had to be something else. I don't care if you get anything that is worth five credits to have get on a ship, I want you to return home safely. I miss you so much, daughter. I have to go, the Admiralty Board will require me in the morning. Keelah se'lia," Rael's voice then disappeared and the comm link was cut off.

Tali sat in silence until she felt a strong arm wrap around her, it was John, and he heard the whole thing. She spoke up, "My father told me that it was important to do this. At least when Ragan saved mom, he changed his views. But then he told me my mom passed away," she said softly.

John turned her around and embraced her. "You don't need to go through that. I lost both of my parents when I was young but this shouldn't have happened. The Geth shouldn't have attacked if they are with Saren. I'm sorry for what happened. Come here," he pulled Tali closer and she started to cry. Tali felt tears run down her face and buried her head in his chest and cried. John and Tali held each other the rest of the night.

The next morning, Tali made her way to the crew area to get something for breakfast. The talk with her father last night soured her mood, the crew took notice as they kept out of her way. But Kaiden came up and sat across from her. "Morning Tali." Tali glared at him. Kaiden was taken aback at Tali's sad look. "You okay?"

She sighed deeply. "Sorry, I had a talk with my father last night."

Kaiden looked at her concerned. "What did he say?" Some of the crew decided to sit down and listen.

Tali lowered her head. "He said that we are doing good at fight Saren."

Kaiden put his hand over his chin, "That's something that should be sad about."

"No but he told me my mother passed away," Kaiden's eyes widened. He places a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry Tali."

Tali looked at him and smiled, "Thank you." Tali then saw Ragan and John walking towards them. "Hey John."

"Feeling better," John then looked at Ragan, one eyebrow raised.

Tali kept smiling and nodded. "Yes thank you, what do you need us for?"

"Hackett called, huge geth forces out in Armstrong Cluster," Ragan said. "He has placed me in charge of this mission for some reason. Don't know why."

That got Kaiden and Tali's attention.

"Why are they there," Tali was concerned about this.

"Don't know, but Hackett says that we may be looking at the start of a full scale invasion," Ragan took a deep breathe.

Kaiden spoke up, "He wants us to investigate, doesn't he?"

Ragan nodded. "We're heading for the first outpost on Casbin then Antibaar, so we will be busy for a while. Get ready by 1742 hours."

Kaiden looked at him, "Ten hours from now. Got it."

John then took a seat. "I need to know if you are alright with this. This is the first time I will not be leading the ground team," Tali and Kaiden nodded. John went back to the cabin with Tali following him.

"John," John looked back. "I'm staying with you."

John smiled. "Then you will be with me on the planets. We still need to get you that gift," Tali eyes lit up and she pounced him on the bed. "Whoa girl," He said while laughing.

"Sorry, I'm just glad that I'm going."

John raised a brow. "You're happy facing killer robots?"

Tali slapped his chest playfully. "You know what I mean," she rested her head on John's chest. "Keelah, if we pull this off then imagine the data about the Geth we will get." She then thought about John. "Won't you get in trouble when you give me the data? It would be Alliance, since it is their mission."

"Not if I give them a copy, that way you still get your gift and the brass stay off my ass," John looked at her eyes through the helmet and kissed the top part.

Tali looked at him, "Thank you."

John chuckled and kissed her mouthpiece. "I told you, I'm with you till the end."

Tali smiled at him. "I know."

Ragan was glad the Mako's VI was offline when they got in about 10 hours later. They looked at him and they lifted a finger before Ragan spoke, "If you think I'm going to destroy the Mako because of that, then you're crazy." The fingers went back down and Ragan shook his head. The Normandy's Cargo Bay doors opened the Mako flew out. As the Mako was flying in the air, Tali was going over the data about the planet they were going to land at, Casbin. Once the Mako landed, it took them about thirty minutes to walk around the base they landed near and start attacking the Geth. "They came here in force, didn't they," Ragan was surprised at how many there were out in the room. John, Kaiden and Tali nodded in agreement.

"How do you want to do this," Kaiden asked. The next thing to come out of Ragan's mouth was scary.

"There is a lot of them, so let's play it safe then play 'Whack the Geth'," The Mako went into stealth mod, and Ragan looked back. "What?"

"You usually rush in with no plan," Tali spoke.

"And if you have a plan, then something is wrong," John looked at Ragan with wide eyes.

"They're right, I think Hell just frozen over and the Devil is telling God to get the three preachers out of Hell because two of them saved everyone and one made AC in Hell,' Kaiden heard John laugh at the joke.

Ragan rolled his eyes, "Whatever, we can drive to the tops of those hills and snipe them from here. Got it?" The group nodded.

The Mako drove up the hill; it had a great vantage point overlooking the Geth outpost. What do you have radar, Kiaden," John asked.

Kaiden looked at the radar. "The outpost is guarded by geth snipers and rocket troopers, they don't seem to notice our position.

Ragan nodded. "Good. Tali get ready."

Tali loaded the Mako's cannons and put it in sniper mode. "Ready Rag." Ragan looked at her and sighed.

"Don't call me that," he said. He hated when his name is short like that. "Well," he looked at Kaiden.

Kaiden smirked. "Locked on target."

"Cool, aim for the rocket troopers first, Tali"

Tali nodded and fired at the troopers. The Geth started firing back at the team. "That got their fucking attention," Kaiden said.

Tali looked at Ragan and sighed, "Shouldn't we move?"

Ragan shook his head. "No, we're safe at this distance, just keep firing." Tali nodded. Try as they might, the Geth could not get at the Mako, but the Mako got at the Geth easily. The rocket troopers and snipers were destroyed. Ragan breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, mission –," before Ragan could finish, the Mako got hit. "Status report."

Kaiden paled. He looks at the radar, "It's a Geth dropship! We need to get out of here, now!"

Ragan looked back at Tali. "Tali, keep on firing. John, you drive. I'll make sure we the ship is destroyed if you make sure we don't get hit again." John and Ragan exchanged seats but Ragan got on the mini-gun turret. "Okay, press the green button." John presses the button Ragan told him to press and the door on the right side opened and the turret went out on a rail and stopped. Ragan was behind it and pressed a button next to the turret's barrel and a shield surrounded him and the turret. John activated the thrusters and the Mako jumped off the hill.

"Brace yourselves, guys. The Mako dropped hard. "Status report."

"Mako's good, but I wouldn't try the thrusters from that height again," Kaiden looked at Ragan, gave a thumbs up. John nodded.

"Noted," John said. The Mako zigzagged so the ship could not get a clear lock as the tank kept firing.

"Shields at fifty, we need to finish this quickly," Kaiden slammed his fist on the console without breaking it.

"Agreed. Rookie, fire at the Geth's ship exhausts. Ragan, I hope you got something that can bring a hole to the hull or something." The Mako fired and the drop ship was hit hard.

"John, the drop ship is retreating," Ragan stated.

John breathed a sigh of relief. "One down, two to go. Let's get out of here." The Mako returned to the Normandy.


	33. Chapter 27: Gift from the Heart part 2

Chapter 27: Gift from the Heart part 2

The next day, Ragan and the team hit the second outpost. What do we have, Kaiden?"

Kaiden looked at the radar. "Geth rocket troopers, geth snipers, and uh oh…"

Ragan looked at Kaiden. "'Uh oh?'" Ragan then looked at the radar. "What is 'uh oh'?"

"We got a geth colossus in the middle of the outpost; they must have been prepared for us," John gulped when he heard Kaiden said that. Ragan shook his head.

"Well, good thing we're not fighting it," Ragan smirked with John. Ragan then nodded.

Tali and Kaiden looked at both of the Shepards. "Wait, what do you mean," Tali was going to hate hearing this but if it means that they don't have to kill Geth today, then she is happy.

John activated the comm. "Joker, you ready?"

The comm came in. "Got you commander. Stealth systems online. Getting ready to bomb them." The Normandy pilot was very eager when it comes destroying Geth bases.

There was huge rumbling and the Normandy came into view. "On my order, unleash hell," Ragan ordered. "Kaiden Radar."

Kaiden nodded and looked at the Radar. "Normandy is above the outpost."

Ragan gave a vicious smirk. "Joker, NOW," he ordered. The Normandy fired on the outpost, the Geth tried to react, but the Normandy shot them faster than they could shoot back. After the battle, all that was left was a crater where the outpost used to be. Ragan gave a smile that so big, that it made him look like everything was going to be destroyed if the Geth touched it.

"Overkill, much," Kaiden looked at Ragan.

Ragan smirked. "No kill like overkill." Tali spoke up.

"When did you set this up?"

Ragan and John shrugged. "Last night while you were sleeping," John said. "Need the big guns, for when we have to deal with another Geth ship. Although it wasn't easy."

**Last Night – SSV Normandy SR-1**

_"So you want the cripple to save your asses, huh," Joker said. "Got to say, not really digging putting myself in the crossfire."_

_John rolled his eyes. "And here I though you wanted to put the Normandy through her paces. So much for being the best pilot in the Alliance." Ragan laughed at that._

_"Yeah, if you're trying to bait me, you'll have to try better than that."_

_Ragan then looks at him, "I got this." He places a shoulder on John, "How about this? I'll buy you the anniversary of Fornax that you keep bitching about, happy?"_

_"Fornax and Playboy," Joker looked at him. "And how the Hell did you hear about that."_

_"A little bird told me," he looked over his shoulder and looked at Pressly._

_John pinched the bridge of his nose, "Son of a… fine deal?"_

_Joker had a huge shit-eating grin. "Deal. Pleasure doing business with you both."_

_"Yeah… yeah," Ragan and John walked to their beds._

**NOW**

Tali's eyes widen. "So the only reason, he agreed to help us was because you bribed him with… porn," Ragan looked at her and rubbed his neck. "Why didn't you just order him, Ragan?"

Ragan looked at John and jaw dropped. "YOU SON OF A BITCH! You should have told me to do that," John laughed his ass off.

"You are such a softie Ragan, you know that," she asked.

Ragan rolled his eyes, "Whatever, all I know is that bastard cost me seven thousand credits." The Mako's alarm sounded.

"Looks like our old friend is back," Kaiden smirked.

"Perfect," John opened the comm link. "Joker, read to ear that porn?"

"Hell yeah, Commander," Joker screamed out. John heard Pressly say something but it was hard to listen to it. John thought Pressly said something about 'no porn allowed.' The Normandy engages the Geth ship; the Geth fired at the cruiser. While its weapons were powerful, they were also slow to fire, which Joker used to his advantage, bobbing and weaving easily. The team had to admit seeing their beloved ship gracefully dodging fire was awe-inspiring, equally more when the Normandy fired on the insect-like frigate. The Geth ship tried to get away, but it was simply too bulky to do any maneuvers that the Normandy can do. The Normandy fired its main weapons and the Geth ship went up in flames like a bonfire. The Normandy can back around to finish it off. Two missiles struck its exposed core. The explosion was spectacularly brilliant, as parts of the ship rained down with a faint thud.

John and Ragan sat back in their seats contently. "I love it when a plan comes together," Ragan was smiling while John just stayed quiet.

"Except now, you have to pay seven thousand credits for Joker's porno," Tali teased and Ragan face-palmed his own face.

"Good luck with that, second fearless leader…" Kaiden was laughing with a grin on his face. Ragan groaned.

Time for Rayingri for the final Geth stronghold. The roar of the Mako echoed on the empty planet of Rayingri. The Normandy had eliminated two of the geth outpost with one to go. The team climbed the hill, but when they got there, they were met with a horrific sight. "More Dragon's teeth, Ragan," Kiaden said shakily. The team had fought the husks lots of times but they were always with the geth's brutality.

"Nothing's sacred to these machines, not even the bodies of the innocents," Tali said barely containing anger.

Ragan looked over to John and nodded. "You're in command of this outpost," John looked at him like he lost his mind. But then again, Ragan lost his parents by Dragon's teeth and the last thing they needed was a Dragon's tooth to fall on the Mako.

John looked around, he looked disturbed, "We can't help them now; we can only put them out of their misery."

"I agree with you on that," Ragan said.

"Where are the husks," Kaiden asked. Ragan and Tali looked around; it was quiet, too quiet. John then looked on his binoculars and saw nothing in the distance.

"I don't like this, John. This is exactly the Geth's style," Tali cautiously said.

"Just like the Cerberus. Sneaky bastards. They need to be dealt with, both Geth and Cerberus," Ragan looked around and found a husk. Without thinking, he opened the Mako's door and shot it in the head with his pistol. "I don't think there are more."

"Let's go in, maybe get information from the terminals. Ragan you stay here and get ready for a quick pick up," Ragan nodded. Inside the base it was just as eerie as it was outside.

"John, I have a bad feeling about this. We're deep in the base and we still haven't seen Geth or husks," Kaiden said.

John looked back, "Yeah, I know. Just keep your eyes peeled." As they walked through the base, they saw a terminal. "Tali, you know what to do." Tali nodded and looked through the terminal's data while John and Kaiden guarded her.

"Anything," Kiaden looked at her.

"This was a simple research base, nothing the Geth could use," Kaiden went next to Tali and started reading the data.

John looked back at her, "So these poor bastards were here at the wrong time."

Tali nodded. "Look like…" she was interrupted by growls and hissing. A husked jumped out behind the team. John quickly shot it in the head.

"Behind us," Kaiden saw husks poured into the room.

"Tali shotgun, Kaiden you're on biotics with me. Make sure these bastards don't get close," John ordered and waited for them to be in range. The husk launched at Tali but she stopped it hard with a roundhouse kick to the head. John and Kaiden pushed them back using biotic throws. The husks were flooding the room faster than they could kill.

"There's too many of them," Kaiden yelled out. John used a singularity field to trap multiple husks.

"Retreat to the entrance, I'll cover you." John started blasting husks with his pistol.

"What about you," Tali quickly shot a husk. "You're outnumbered, John."

"I'll be fine, now go." Tali hesitated. "I'll make it back to you, promise." Kaiden and Tali nodded and made their way to the entrance. The husks clawed at John but were blown away by throw fields. More husks came at the Spectre, with great fury, only to be stopped by several shotgun blasts. John switched his pistol for a shotgun during that time. The husks were flooding in more and more, he was going to have to leave and soon. John's comm beeped. "What is it?" Sounds of battle could be heard from the comm.

"We're pinned down by Geth," Kaiden said. John paled when he heard that.

"How bad is it," he asked alarmed. The com was silent for a second. "Kaiden."

"Bad enough that we probably won't make it. We have to get to the Normandy." John's mind raced.

"Call the Normandy, and stay in cover. I'll be there soon." John let loose of all his grenades at the husks and gave himself time to get to the entrance. When he made it, outside he saw Kaiden in cover swarmed by Geth, trying to protect Tali, who is slumped over in the cover. '_No, Tali,_' he thought. John closed his eyes and focused his biotics and caused a huge singularity field lifting the geth. "Take this, you son of bitches. Don't even dare touch my Tali!" He looked over and saw the Mako coming over and mowed down some of the Geth. The door opened.

"Quick, get in," Ragan's voice was heard.

John ran towards Kaiden. "Kaiden, warp field." Kaiden shot a warp field and it blew the geth away in every direction off the ledge they were on. John rushed to Tali's side, she was in bad condition and she was bleeding everywhere.

"Tali! Tali… you're going to be okay, j… just stay with me okay…"

"Jo…hn…" she said weakly.

"Damnit… Damnit…!" John panicked. He rose up and activated his com. "Joker get that fucking ass of yours over here, Tali's hurt!"


	34. Chapter 27: Gift from the Heart part 3

Chapter 27: Gift from the Heart part 3

Moments later, John rushed a bloody Tali into the med-bay. Doctor Chakwas forced John and Kaiden out of the room as she worked on Tali. The hours waiting was painful for John as he was pacing back and forth in the crew deck, with Kaidne trying to calm him down and Ragan resting his head on the table he was sitting at. Dr. Chikwas came out of the med bay. "How is she, doc," John was worried.

Chakwas smiled. "She will be fine, you can see her but don't wake her." John felt relieved and came in to see her. He saw her asleep and smiled and sat at her side.

"You had to scare me again, you are very good at doing that Rookie," John grabbed her hand and intertwined his five fingers with her three fingers. "Rest, Tali. I'll make sure you get that gift, I promise you." He leaned down and kissed her helmet, he then heard the sound of the door open.

"How is she," Kaiden asked. John turned towards Kaiden and gave him a dry smile.

"She's find, although I should have listened to Tali. It was an ambush and fell right in their trap. She got hurt because of me… if she had died, Kaiden…" Kaiden put his hand on his shoulder.

"She'll be fine. She's a tough girl," he said. "It was one mistake, John. We all make them. I don't blame you and Tali don't either." That cheered John a little.

"Thanks… And the base?"

"Destroyed along with the remaining husks and we also got a signal from inside the system."

John looked at him. "What is it?"

Kaiden face was serious. "They have another base on Solcrum; we believe it is the main one."

John nodded. "Good, let's finish this synthetic bastards. Tell Garrus to get ready in four hours. I want Ragan with us…"

Kaiden looked at John. "Sorry but Ragan is fallen asleep. I have tried to wake him up but he won't budge." John then heard the stirring of Tali waking up. "Tali?"

"Kaiden, John." Said trying to get up.

John walked to her and held her down gently. "Whoa, you can't get up, you're still hurt."

Tali lay back down on the bed. "I'm sorry.."

"For what?" Kaiden left the room so that John and Tali can talk in private.

"For worrying you." John smiled and kissed the top of her helmet.

"Don't be, I'm leader this is all on me…"

Tali touched his face gently, "John…"

John kissed her mouthpiece. "Shh… just stay here and rest, we'll be back in no time."

"Okay, just be careful, please…?"

"You got it Rookie," John turned to walk out of the med-bay. Before he left, he turned to her. "Keelah se'lai, saying," he said with a smile.  
Tali's eyes widened. "How do you…"

He chuckled. "Later, Tali."

"I'm starting to hate the geth colossi," Garrus complained. Kaiden looked at him.

"You and me both," Kaiden was about to flip out. The Mako landed to eliminate the last outpost, but it was easier said than done. The Geth came out in force, to protect the last outpost. The entrance to the underground base on Solcrum is guarded by Geth rocket troopers in sniper towers and two patrolling Geth Colossui.

"Damn that Colossus is tough," Garrus pressed a button and the Mako's guns bounced off the Geth.

"The Geth have down their fucking homework," Kaiden was about looked at the radar and John looked back at them.

"Stop praising it and focus," John said. Garrus and Kaiden shut up and went back to the battle. John soon noticed something strange about the Geth. The geth's legs had a small dent in it. '_Bingo,_' he thought. John looked at Garrus. "Aim for its legs, they seem to be the least protected."

Garrus grinned and nodded. "Got it, boss." The Mako fired at the colossus' feet until one of the legs collapsed and the Geth fell.

"Finish it," Garrus loaded the cannon and fired. The Geth exploded.

"Done," the Turian had a smirk across his face. The team went into the base. As the team came closer to the middle of the base, they heard singing.

"Is… that is singing," Kaiden jumped while looking for a target.

"Yeah, I heard the same thing on Feros," John nodded. The team went to a lookout point and saw the Geth on their knees. In front of them was a halo, of a Quarian woman singing, it was a little more damaged than the one on Feros.

"They're… praying," Garrus found this very disturbing. John looked at Kaiden, he looked disturbed as well. John had to admit, it was quite the sight to see cold and logical machines having a religion. He then shook his head of such thoughts, he had a job to do.

"Alright, shows over," Garrus and Kaiden snapped to attention. "Garrus give us sniper support. Kaiden you're with me." Garrus and Kaiden nodded. Garrus went to the top and loaded his sniper rifle.

Kaiden widen his overload programs and launched it at the geth. The program disabled the rocket troopers and juggernauts. John used his singularity field to sweep up the Geth hoppers. Garrus spoke on the comm.

"Geth shock troopers, on your left." John used his lift field and the Geth was lifted helplessly in the air before getting shot by Garrus. "Thanks boss, watch out. More juggernauts straight ahead."

John looked at Kaiden. "Use stasis on the juggernauts, make sure they don't get close," John ordered. Kaiden glowed blue and froze the juggernauts in place. "Garrus, shoot them."

Garrus shot each of the juggernauts in the head, destroying them in the process. "Only five left, Shepard." John grinned.

"Take a rest Garrus, we got this," Kaiden disabled the Geth's weapons while John focused and created a big singularity field, engulfing the Geth. They then launched their respective warp fields causing an explosion of biotic force.

"No more enemies, boss," Garrus said.

John sighed, "Good job, regroup with us."

Kaiden then started looking at something on a terminal. "John, I think you should see this." John walked over and looked at the data, a number of encrypted files. In the right hands they could show much about the evolution of the Geth since the banishment of the Quarians. "Tali is going to be one happy girl." Kaiden had a smirk.

John blushed and shook his head. "Just download the damn thing, so we can get out of here." Kaiden chuckled.

"Don't worry, I'm making a copy." John rolled his eyes. When Garrus met up with John and Kaiden, the team left.

Later, John was outside of the Normandy's med-bay to meet Tali. He was conflicted and for very good reason, although he promised to get her a pilgrimage gift, he was worried. John looked at the OSD. '_Giving this to her will make her happy, but then… I won't see her again, possibly ever… I could come up with some bullshit reason to not give her this, but could I really do that to her,_' he though. He shook his head, as he though back to what his father always said to him as a child: '_No, a real man keeps his promises to his friends and especially to his woman, she comes first, no matter what._' John sighed deeply.

"John," John jumped at the voice, he looked back and it was Tali, looking well for a woman who just got shot in the stomach.

"Oh shit, Tali."

Tali blinked at him. "Are you oaky?"

John raised a brow. "Am I okay? What are you doing up? You should be resting." Tali giggled.

"I'm fine, John. Dr. Chakwas said I could work, but nothing too big for at least a week."

John stared at her. "And you sure you're okay?"

Tali nodded. "Quarians heal bit faster than humans, as long as I don't overdo it, I should be fine in a couple of weeks."

John sighed and grabbed Tali's hand. "I think this is yours, Rookie." In the Quarian's hand was a small OSD.

Tali's eyes lit up and she looked at him. "Is this…?" John nodded and Tali hugged him tightly. "Thank you John, really you don't know how much this means to me," she softly said. John expression grew sad. Tali looked at him. "What's wrong, John?"

"What's going to happen after we stop Saren? What are you going to do?" Tali looked down when she saw John turn his head.

"I'll have to go back to my people, this is important to the…"

"Oh I see. Will we ever see each other again? I mean… I could visit you…"

Tali looked away from John. "I… don't know if that's possible, my people don't' trust outsiders, so this really could be good-bye." John lowered his head; it was really not the answer he really wanted to hear. "But, now, you need me." John looked at her. "I'm not leaving you to fight Saren alone, I love you too much to just abandon you. Now there might be a way if you were dextro. If I'm found pregnant, then the Conclave and Admiralty Board will be forced to have me stay here."

John smiled at her, it might be goodbye soon, but for now Tali would stay with him until the end. He would treasure the time they had left. "No regrets?" Tali squeezed him tightly.

"Does this answer your question," she asked playfully.

John kissed her mouthpiece. "Yes it does, although I wish this was a little more romantic though."

Tali gave a playful smirk, "Don't worry about that, sayang."

John tilted her head. "What do you mean?" She tapped her helmet to his head.

"It's a surprise," now she was teasing John.

John raised a brow. "You know, usually when someone says that, bad things tend to happen," that joke earned him an elbow to the ribs.

Tali rolled her eyes. "You're a bosh'tet, but you're my bosh'tet."

John chuckled, "Noted, Rookie."


	35. Chapter 28: Noveria part 1

Chapter 28: Noveria part 1

It was a normal day on the Normandy. John has just did his rounds and decided to work out in the Cargo Hold alone. It helped him clear his mind as he thought about the situation between him and Ashley. Things had been tense between them since he told her about his relationship with Tali. And telling her that he didn't trust her enough to tell her made things worse to the point they weren't now friends, just a commander and his subordinate. '_I got to fix this._' He got up to see Ash but got a message from Feros.

'_Feros? Who could be calling me there?_' He activated his omni-tool and saw an Asari. "Shiala? How did you get my tool's code," he thought for a while before speaking again. "Wait; don't tell me, Liara right?" Shiala nodded, John sighed. "That girl…"

Shiala spoke up, "I'm glad you are well Commander, I should thank you again for sparing my life."

John sat at the tool bench. "You're welcome, but I'm guessing you're not here for small talk."

Shaila nodded. "Yes. I wish it was under better conditions." Her voice had sadness that John never seen it for years. The time the Batarians attacked Mindoir made him as sad as Shaila was right now.

"The Thorian," John had one brow up.

Shaila shook her head and gave a sigh. "No, though I could see why you would be worried."

"So shoot, what do you want," Shiala grew silent and John had a bad feeling. "Shiala?"

The Asari looked at him. "An old friend of my mine contacted me last night, she saw my sister on Noveria." That caught his attention, they've been on a dry run when it came to leads about Saren and his allies.

"Matriarch Beniezia? What is she doing there?"

Shiala lowered her head. "I don't know but I do know she is not doing this on her own will. I guess that man that said 'indoctrination' was right." John didn't believe her story about her being controlled by Saren's ship, mind control was just too crazy to believe, but he let it drop for now. The also thought that Ragan was right about it. Something about this didn't make any sense because Ragan must know something.

"Okay, got it," John was about to turn off his comm link.

"Wait Shepard, bring Liara with you. She needs this. This may be the final time she may see her mother.

John raised his brow, "What do you mean?"

Shiala lowered her head. "I did some research about indoctrinations and found that no matter what, the person will die. Give Liara her good-byes with her. This is for her sake as well as Liara's sake."

John nodded, he didn't agree with it but he had a feeling something new might happen. "Understood." Shiala's image faded. As he got from the too bench, he saw Ashley. "Ash," he said.

Ash gave a dry salute. "Sir." Again without any emotions, course soldiers are not to show any kind of emotions when they are talking to their commanding officers.

"John rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Um, gear up you, Tali, Liara, Garrus, and Wrex are coming with me to Noveria."

Ash nodded, "Yes sir." Dryly stated before walking away, Ash then heard John sigh. '_This is going to be fun,_' he though.

When the Normandy approached Noveria, they were apparently not on the scheduled arrival list. Joker explained to them that they had two Spectres onboard, they didn't buy it, but they let them through anyway. However Noveria's traffic controller warned them they were being tracked by defense systems and threatens to fire at the Normandy if John's identity is not confirmed. The Spectre hoped that inside things would be friendlier, they would have no such luck. Barely out of the Normandy, had the team come across a group of armed people stood in front of them, two humans and a handful of Turians. They were wearing the same armor.

"That's far enough," one of the women called out to them. She had black hair and calm expression, while the others had yellow hair and looked much more aggressive. John looked at the black-haired woman. '_Must be the leader,_' he thought. "This is an unscheduled arrival. I need your credentials.

Ragan got up and the people went wide eyed. "Ragan Shepard, Spectre of the council. Same with John Shepard." The people looked at him and the woman came up.

"It's been to long Ragan. What do you mean you're a Spectre now," she asked. One of the men looked at her and shook his head.

"Load of bullshit, ma'am," the blonde woman said.

John sighed. "You know people who doubt me and the Council authorities, tend to end up dead."

The blonde took a more aggressive stance. "Is that a threat?"

Ragan pulled a gun at him and aimed it at her stomach. "Not his words but I will shoot your fucking stomach if you keep on. Spectres are above the law you asshole. I suggest you listen or you will be missing a fucking stomach for the rest of your worthless life – which would be five seconds due to the slugs of this gun ricotta off bones and tears organs." The blonde woman looked at him and sighed.

"We'll get you checked out, for her. Ignore her. She is an ass. She hasn't watched the news. Firearms are not allowed but since you're Spectres, we have to give you authorization to have your weapons," she turns around at the aggressive blonde. "Sergeant Sterling, leave now."

"Yes ma'am." As the same time just chuckled. John was glad that Ragan was down there for this but he had to go back on the Normandy in a little bit.

"Thank you for getting her away," John sighed.

"I did it because Sterling and Ragan have a bad history. Sterling always hated Ragan because Ragan was better than her. Even in military academy."

"We've confirmed their identities, Spectres are authorized to carry weapons on Noveria and have legal rights to do what they want on this planet," a deep voice sounded. "Captain Matsuo, you may leave."

Matsuo nodded her head. "Understood." She looks back at Ragan. "I hope you still love me after all I did for you, Spectre." The guards walked away glaring at John's team, John just sat there with a smug smile on his face.

"Well that was fun," he said. Ragan then walked back to the Normandy. "I'll keep in radio contact, Ragan."

Ash shook her head. "I didn't expect that from them, sir." She walked to the security gate.

John sighed, '_Fixing this will be harder than I thought._' They went to catch up with Ash, when they reached the second landing and pass through some scanners and an alarm goes off. The team went to attention, an attractive woman in a pinkish-red dress came up and turned off the alarms.

"My apologies, Spectre Shepard. Just weapon detectors. I'm Gianna Parasini, assistant to Administrator Anelies, quiet the show your crewmate put on."

"Yeah, well he wouldn't have to if security was a little more friendly and watched the news."

"They were just doing their job except for Sterling. Hated her when she thinks she is on-top of the world attitude," she looks at her.

"Glad you and Ragan agree."

"You're not very friendly yourself, I see. Just like Ragan when he was stationed her for security measures. I remembered what the Alliance wanted. Have security measures up because of a pro-human terrorist group called Cerberus was coming. Glad he did that, but even then, it was hard for him."

"I'm only friendly until someone puts a gun to my face or test my pertinence. Same with Ragan. Anyways, I'm looking for Matriarch Benezia, I heard she was here." Parasini went through the systems.

"Ah, yes an Asari by the very name is here, she left for Peak 15 research complex a few days ago, to the best of my knowledge she is still there. I'd be careful if I was you. We heard rumors of Rachni. Some of the people saw some of them but we can't confirm it."

"Great, show us the way and we'll take it from her."

"I'm sorry but you will need Administrator Anoleis' permission to leave this port, I can show you the way."

"I don't think so. As a Spectre, I don't need him or her permission to do that. I leave now or I will let you see if the Rachni rumors are true by letting them come here – if they are real."

"I'm sorry but he asked for you personally," she was about to run away when Tali grabbed her shotgun but John raised a hand to stop her.

"Fine, do it," he then saw Liara lower her head.

"So my mother is indeed her." In all the confusion, John had forgotten Benezia was there, and that Liara may have to do the unthinkable when they meet Matriarch."

John sighed. "Liara, when you face your mother, if we can't talk to her down; can you fight her," John was serious. "Can you kill her? The mission is too important."

Liara looked at him and nodded. "It if comes to that, I will."

"Then let's hope it doesn't come to this then," Tali looked at John and Garrus shook his head. The team made their way through port Hanshan. While walking to Administrator Anoleis office, the team was getting looks of suspicion that was unnerving to John. '_This must be what Tali feels all the time,_' the thought crossed his mind. They made it to the office, it was time to start their mission.


	36. Chapter 28: Noveria part 2

Chapter 28: Noveria part 2

They made it to the office, the office was cold, sterile, and bland which matched perfectly with the corporate lifestyle of the planet. "Wow, they must throw some great parties here," Garrus said sarcastically. "Where's Anoleis?" Parsini nodded and opened the intercom.

"Mr. Anoleis. Commander Shepard and his crew is here to speak with you."

"Thank you for bringing this up to my attention," Anoleis said impatiently. "I'll talk to him when I'm ready."

"Sir, the Commander is a Spectre."

"Right, fine, tell them come in."

"Nice guy," John said dryly. Parasini shrugged. He then turned to his team. "Stay here, I'm going to talk with him."

Liara stood at attention. "Um, are you sure you won't need help?"

"Unless he can make a data pad into a gun, I think I'll be fine." Garrus and Wrex looked at them and was about to say something but Ash stopped them by glaring at them. Tali rolled her eyes. John left, leaving his team behind. '_I'm already starting to miss him,_' Liara thought.

Liara always felt nervous around Ashly, it was obvious from the first time they met, that Ashley didn't like her. '_Maybee this time will be different._' Tali then spoke up. "Ashley." The Human looked at the Quarian.

"What do you want suit…," Garrus shot her a look before she could finish the sentence.

"I've noticed that things have been strained between you and John," Tali then got some looks from Garrus, Wrex and Liara.

"Yeah because of you dating him," Ash pointed her finger at Tali.

"W-what does that have to do with it?"

"John doesn't trust me enough to tell me about you and him being together," Ashley then saw Garrus grab her shoulder and shook his head. Without thinking Liara spoke.

"Are you more upset about him not telling you or that he didn't pick you?"

"What was that," Ash looked at Liara.

Wrex looked at them and put his two-cent wisdom into it. "Don't hide something like that, it will destroy you like it nearly does with everyone else that is jealous. I can tell you're jealous Ash, I can smell it and it smells like wet Varren shit load." Garrus and Tali laughed at that.

"I've seen how the Commander is when he is around Tali, he's happy," Liara said.

"Happy? But she," Ash pointed at Tali, "is a Quarian. She can't even take her suit off, they can't even eat the same food."

Ragan's voice came over the comm link. "ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT, GUNNERY CHIEF WILLIAMS, YOU ARE BEING TRANSFERRED IF YOU KEEP ON BEING A XENOPHOBIC! ALIENS HAVE FEELINGS AND YOU WANT TO BE LIKE THAT, HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF A QUARIAN MADE FUN OF YOU FOR YOU'RE ACTIONS TOWARDS THEM?!" Ash was silent. Wrex and Garrus looked at them. "Look at them. Wrex and Garrus are working together even when the genophage is there but that doesn't stop them on one thing: Going after Saren. And the Geth forced the Quarians to have those suits on them because the Geth drove them off of Rannoch. And you want to be like that. Look at the race that has done the most damage to Humanity: the fucking blinks. The Batarians. But yet, we worked with them – or at least the System Alliance has – to get some information about a rouge general. Maybe that doesn't matter up the grand scheme of Tali with him. I've seen the pain he carried from the times he was a sixteen years old. A lot of that comes from us, Tali is special, with her life is bearable even precious, it make coming to terms with his past easier. He lost his parents, he lost his entire squad on a Thresher Maw world. And he was forced to care an order on Torfan that made him the Butcher of Torfan. Can you really say you can do the same with John?" Garrus and Wrex stood there in complete awe. It was rare of Ragan to say something like that.

Ashley went silent and had a thoughtful look on her face. "I… guess I can't…," she said.

Liara put her hand on her shoulder. "You truly like him didn't you," Liara asked.

Ashley blushed. "Yeah. He was the first one to truly acknowledge me, not my grandfather's mistake, not my last name but me." Ash then looked at the comm link, "But I guess at the same time, I didn't see him. I was such a bitch to them…"

"Why don't you talk to him after the mission? Despite his rash nature he seems to care for the whole crew," Ragan said.

Ash chuckled, "I will, thank you Ragan and all of you."

They then heard footsteps and Ragan cut the comm link. They could tell John was angry.

"Goddammit," Tali looked at him.

"What's wrong," Ash looked at him and was concerned.

"That prick Anoleis, won't let us see Benezia."

Wrex looked at him. "Let's go talk to him, Garrus. I'm sure he will listen to us," Wrex laughed. Garrus was scared of what Wrex might do. But they left to see Anoleis.

"Why?" Liara shook her head.

John started pacing and explained that Anoleis told him how Saren and Benezia are involved with Noveria affairs, they were both major investors in Binary Helix, and Asari owned gentic engineering and Biotechnology Company. The Company currently had a significant presence on Noveria, and the Salarian had basically threatened John that interference will bring the board on their heads.

"That's bullshit!" Ash got up and punched a wall. "Does he even know that Saren is a traitor and will kill him before he thinks about it?"

Wrex came up with Garrus and was smiling. "We got clearance. Told them that Saren was using the Geth to get to the Citadel and destroy it. And Ragan commented via comm link about the Rachni that he saw near the Normandy was closely related to the ones that Cerberus was creating," Garrus then looks at them. "So basically we lied."

"Okay, so let's go find Parasini," Tali said while shaking her head at Garrus. Parasini comes back from the corner and look at them.

"Anoleis is has authorized it. Follow me. We will be heading to Lorik Oui'in of Synthetic Insights. His office had been wrecked by security forces under Anoleis' orders, so he's understandably quite pissed at the Administrator."

"I bet." John said. "Isn't Anoleis your boss?"

"It's complicated, now hurry, Qui'in is in the hotel lounge," Parasini explained.

"Can we trust her, Skipper," Ash was having a bad feeling about this. The team walked away.

"Talking to me are you," John gave a smirk

"Well, the silent treatment was getting kind of boring and Ragan spook to me about xenophobia," Tali nodded her head in agreement.

John grew serious, "Don't know, but I'll be watching my back just in case. They made their way to the hotel. They met with Lorik, who was sitting at one of the tables on the main level, confirms that Anoleis is a corrupt administrator. As the administrator of one of the port's tenants, he did have a garage pass to offer him, but he needed access to evidence in his office in return. John considered his offer and ultimately agreed. They went down to Lorik's office, however it wasn't long before a fire fight started.

"Tell me again, why we are doing this," Garrus asked annoyed. As soon as they enetered the Synthetic Insights office, they had to fight ERCS guards.

"Cause we need that garage pass," John said.

Liara looked at him. "You're a Spectre, couldn't you just force your way through."

John shook his head but Ragan beat him to the punch. "We could, but he rather not have any reason for the board for a manhunt, besides his on thin ice with the council at it is. Hell, I know I am," John looked at the omni-tool and shut if off right before Ragan could finish, "Don't do…"

Ash looks at him. "Since when do you both care what the Council thinks?"

John shrugged. "Since I found out their bitching gives us headaches. Ah Hell, what's one more. Liara light them up."

Liara used her singularity field to lift the guards and Garrus used overload on him. The ones left standing were ripped through Wrex shotgun and Tali's pistol. "More up the stairs, Skipper."

John threw his grenades up the stairs and caused the guards to fly. "Ragan?"

"You're good. Sending rookies against trained soldiers, I think Noveria likes to waste credits. At least Cerberus knows better than this fools," John took his finger off his helmet after Ragan was done talking.

"They don't care, as long as they protect their money, they won't care how guards they have to go through, fucking mega corps," John scoffed.

The team made their way upstairs to Qui'in's office. "Is that the data," Tali asked.

John nodded and whistled. Ash cam to take a look. "Damn that's a lot of money, Anoleis is going to hang for this," she looked at Tali.

"You mess with a nest of vipers, expect to get bitten," John said. Garrus and Wrex nodded in agreement.

"I couldn't said it any better," Wrex then looks at the door to make sure no one was coming in.

"V…ipers?" John turns his head towards Liara. Ash shook her head.

"A venomous snake back on earth, one bit is enough to kill several adult humans. They eat their way out of the mother's womb also," Liara nodded now getting the metaphor.

John downloaded the data and the team walked out before being met with Sterling and more guards. "Shit, here I thought this was going to be easy," John grabs his pistol and aims at Sterling.

"It never is, even with her trying to say that Humanity doesn't have two Spectres," John looked over at Garrus and Wrex who then got their weapons ready.

"I don't think you're supposed to be in here, Shepard," Sterling said with venom.

John crossed his arms. "I could say the same Goddamn thing to you. Funny how you just happen to get here just as I walk out of this office."

"What are you trying to say," Sterling glared at him and then saw the other teammates had their guns ready and Liara was glowing blue.

"You're in on the whole thing, Anoleis bribed you to keep his money laundering a secret. Man, if the board finds out, you and your thugs are going to fry."

Sterling then looked around her. "Since you know already, you think I'm going let you walk…" A barrel was placed on the back of her head. She turns around but was punched in the head.

"Don't move," a familiar voice said, Ragan uncloaked himself. "Another idiot with an ego problem, like that never gets old."

"I know, just bear it and humor her for a moment," John then lifted two fingers at Ragan, he nodded in response. "So, you want to start or should we?"

Sterling gave a cold laugh. "You're an arrogant son of bitch aren't you? Tell me do you know what we do to cop killers on my world?"

Ash rolled her eyes, "Oh my God, let's just kill the dirty bitch and get on with the mission." Ragan pulls the trigger.


	37. Chapter 28: Noveria part 3

Chapter 28: Noveria part 3

Luckily Ragan shot Sterling in the leg so that she can fall down. The fight was quick and bloody. Sterling was on the floor bleeding with John standing over her. He crouched down with a smug smirk on his face; there was no pity for the dirty cop.

"So you might be thinking now, 'Was the money worth it?'," John chuckled a little

Sterling gave a murderous gaze, "You little shit… What are you waiting for? If you're going to kill me, get it over with." She coughed up blood, Sterling wasn't going to make it after this.

John gave a smirk. "Nah, I wouldn't waste my time of my heat sink on a little bitch like you. But Ragan might."

Sterling eyes widen. Gone was the defiance and the misplace bravery in her eyes, only fear took its place. "N-no, you wouldn't. Do you have any idea what he will do to me?" She looked at Ragan who grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up. "Oh shit." Ragan bashed her head against the wall five times then threw her to the opposite wall.

"Yep, think of it as a nice way for you to reflect on your life, you before he brutally beats you to dead. See you later," John was laughing. Ash couldn't help but shudder as he said those words and Ragan was beating on Sterling. '_They don't call him the Butcher for nothing. And Ragan is called the God of War because he is brutal in like a Spartan when I read about them,_' she thought. "Let's go," John ordered,

Sterling cursed at the top of her lungs as John and the team walked out, but left Ragan beating on her. They made their way back to the hotel. Parasini was there.

"Ah I see you're back," Parasini and sipping her cup of tea.

"I got your evidence, now the garage pass," John handed her the evidence on a data pad.

Parasini wagged her finger. "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Now you just need to get Qui'in to testify."

John glared at the woman. "That wasn't part of the deal, I got your damn evidence. Anything after that is on your ass."

Parasini rolled her eyes, "As long as I have the pass, you can't go and do your little mission, now do I say and get the Turian to testify," Ash palmed her face. '_This is not going to end well,_' she thought.

John's eye twitched and he lifted the woman with his biotics. "No you listen to me you conniving little bitch, I don't take orders from you and your little board, you keep this up and I will show you why a Spectre is above the law, got it?!" Parasini nodded her head repeatedly. "Good."

John dropped her hard on the floor and Parasini gave up the key card. The team left the shaken woman. "Was that really necessary," Liara asked.

"No, but it was fun," Liara and Ash glared at him. John sighed, "Fine, if I ever see her again I'll buy her a fucking drink."

"I must keep my hands full with you," Tali said.

"I agree," Liara nodded.

John rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah." Grumbled something after that that didn't get picked up. The team made it to the garage; it was quiet, too quiet. "Stay close, I have a bad feeling about this," he said. A mechanical sound caught everyone's attention.

"What is that…" A further sound, all too familiar, answered the question: The distinctive cackling of Geth platforms. Two Geth destoyers, ghost, stalker, rocket troop, and shock trooper attacked them. A destroyed charged at them. "Shit," Ash blurted out. Everyone started shooting them.

"Garrus, get the ghost. Laira, stasis," The destroy froze in its tracks and the Geth ghost was shot in the head. The team took cover, Ash tried to blast the rocket troopers but it was too fast , unknowing to her, a second destroy charged at the Gunnery Chief. "Ash, behind you," John yelled out when Ash looked back too late and was on the floor with a rifle staring at her. John overloaded the destroyer and pushes it back with a throw field, when he got to her they were surrounded by shock troopers. Tali pumped her shotgun and started shooting at every Geth she was in range of.

"Happens to the best of us, don't worry about it," John quickly shot a destroyer in the head. "But I do wonder how are we getting out of this?" Ash looked around the room and saw a whole bunch of canisters littered around the garage. This place was bonfire waiting to happen, which was perfect for getting rid of annoying Geth.

"This place is full of flammable material, it would be a shame if it caught on fire, Skipper," she winked and pointed at the canisters. John nodded bak, the Spectre called Liara to run inferernce of the Geth, the Asari glowed blue and trapped them all in a huge singularity field. The agile ghosts and stalkers tried to escape but even they were trapped by the field. Near by a swirling vortex had picked up several canisters.

"Buh-bye bosh'tets," John said while smirking. John sabotaged the canisters while Garrus shot one of them. Wrex used shockwave on the canisters that were out of the singularity field. A huge explosion happened, so huge in fact, the alarms started to sound. Several guards came in to investigate. Matsuo was with the guards.

"What the… What are these things," Matsuo asked in the alarm. "Fan out and secure the area! No one gets in or out until a full sweep is meet."

"You're welcome," John said. "Those were Geth units. Now if you excuse us, we need a mission to get done."

"Okay, fine, go. Make sure that whoever sent them gets killed," Matsuo gave a diabolical smirk. John was crept out by that smile.

"Head to the Mako," John ran towards it and got in.

The team ran for the Mako. One of the guards that came in aimed at them but Matsou stopped him. The team had to use the Mako as cover when more Geth came out but was shot by Matsou's team. John threw a grenade towards where the Geth's position and set it on the lowest setting by omni-tool so he could stun them.

"Watch it, explosive!" As the explosive got the ERCS guards attention, the team went into the Mako and drove into the white snow wilderness. Once they left the Mako, gave a notification of a Level 1 Cold Hazard; limiting the teams exposure to the outside until they reached Peak 15. The ride was not to be uneventful, however as they approached the first tunnel; the Geth have placed a turret there. Which were reinforced with shock troopers, rocket troopers and regular troopers. In addition, the Geth have deployed personal shields near their positions.

John groaned. "I should've known they wouldn't make it easy for us," John search for a safe place to attack, going to blindly was going to get them killed. Ash activated the main gun and entered in sniper mode. Garrus got on the mini-gun turret and started blasting. Ash was able to take out two turrets before it could lock on the tank. Garrus' fire was to distract the Geth so Ash could destroy the turret. "You have to admit, Ragan knows how to outfit a tank with a good weapon," John was smiling.

"Geth incoming," Liara looked at the radar. Tali got on the machine guns and mowed down the geth. Some of the geth set down personal shields to the block the guns of the Mako, as they counted attacked. Suddenly the tank shook slightly by the rocket troopers. Ash shot the main gun and the Geth went flying, some off into the ravine. The Mako went on ahead; about halfway down the tunnel are four Geth rocket troopers. They were all shooting their rockets at the same time so it makes their shots easy to dodge. Thanks to the crazy driving of John, the rocket troopers were run over before they could get in another shot.

When they were out of the tunnel, a Geth armature was waiting for them and it also had some rocket trooper friends. This was a tough battle, when the rocket troopers weren't pounding them, the armature was.

Shields at fifty-two. Shepard, we can't take much more," Wrex then looked at a small hatch and opened it to find a rocket launcher. "Shepard, open the door. I got a rocket date for the armature." The door opened and Wrex fired but the rocket hit the rocket troopers. "Fuck this." The door then closes before a rocket flew through the Mako and went through the other side without exploding.

"Ashe, take out the rocket troopers, then start focusing on the Armature with Tali." Ash nodded and mowed down the rocket troopers with the main gun. The armature fired at the Mako, and the tank shook hard. "Status!"

"We lost twenty. We are at thrity-two," Wrex quickly was looking at the shields. John maneuvered around the armature dodging siege pulse fire until the tank got behind it. Before the Armature could turn, Wrex opened the door and shot the rocket at it while Ash blasted it with the main gun and Tali pleted it with the machine guns. Garrus then gets the mini-gun ready and tears the armor off of it. After a while the Geth succumbed to the damage and fell. They moved on until they reached the next tunnel, which was defended by more Geth which were wiped out quite easily. Now nearing the Peak 15 research facility, the only enemies were three Geth turrets. As the Mako made the first turn around the cover, was the first turret, if they were not careful the turret's missile would knock them off the cliff. John drove while dodging the missiles with Ash fired on the turrets, the Spectre was lucky Ash was such a good sharpshooter, because after the Gunnery Chief destroyed the first one, the second fired about halfway down the path form the first to the last turn. The Mako jumped, dodging the missile. Ash fired the main cannon, the tank's missile enters the nozzle of the second turret and was destroyed from the inside. The Mako was then hit on the side; alarms were buzzing and beeping loudly.

"Shields at twelve, one more and we're finished," Wrex closed the door and looked at the radar. "The third is above and to the left on the mountain." Ash targeted that position, and before the turret could fire once more, she shot it but failed when the missile lost guidance. Tali then shot it with a barrage of machine gun fire, the turret exploded. The path to Peak 15 was cleared.


	38. Chapter 28: Noveria part 4

Chapter 28: Noveria part 4

'_Finally, I was getting sick of the cold,_' John thought. After a long trek across the Aleutsk Valley, they made it to Peak 15. The research facility was mess, from the burning Grizzly out in the front to the wall and floor full of bullet holes and burn marks, it looked like a war zone, and however there were no bodies that litter base. Which begged the question, what were they fighting? John and the team looked around the corner of the entrance; the garage was full of Krogan and Geth.

"That's a lot of enemies, we're going to have to be careful," John and the team nodded at Ash.

"Then we strike first, Liara lift that cyro canister," Liara lifted the canister near the Geth juggernaut. John then sabotaged the canister causing it to freeze the juggernaut and any allies near it. That caught the attention of the Krogan and the Geth.

"Krogan incoming," Ash looked at John, who threw two grenades, one to stun the Krogan and the other to thin out the herd. John then sabotaged the Krogan's gun and make him fall back, but all it did was make the Krogan charge at them. Wrex got up and counter charged at the Krogan. "Go get him," Ash was amazed how Wrex just rammed the Krogan into the wall and broke all the bones thus killing it because of the bones came out of the body. "Gross."

"We got this, Liara throw on my mark, and… NOW!" Liara and John both launched throw fields at one of the Krogan that was covering the Geth, causing him to crash on the crates. "Ash aim for the head."

Garrus shot one of the Krogan and Ash shot the Krogan that was on the crates. Tali then hacked into a Geth unit and made it self-destruct. "I think that's all of them," Wrex commented. "Those Krogan are weak pyjaks."

John wondered the labs looking for clues. Dim, reddish light fell from some few sources on the ceiling. Crates created shadows everywhere; an eerie atmosphere covered the labs, it felt like something or someone could jump out against them."

"Dammit! I can barely get anything from these terminals, before it shut off," Ash then struck and idea. The places her fingers on her helmet, "Ragan, I'm sending some information to you. See if you can hack into it and get it before it shuts off."  
"Copy that," Ragan's voice was not very happy but he had to do the job. Ashley sends the data to him and gets a message. "Found something but it's not good. It looks like the rumors of the Rachni are true. Saren and Benezia were working on trying to work on a Rachni but I'm not sure. It's hard because most of it was gibberish. I'm trying to see if anything else can be gotten in that facility. I'll keep in contact."

"So you sent the data to him," Laira realized. "The labs must be on emergency power."

John nodded. "Yeah but why?"

"Could it be because of the storm," Ash wasn't sure but it sound like it could have been it.  
"I don't think so, even with the storm the labs should have plenty of backups in place," Ragan's voice was clear. "Could be someone trying to hack into the system before you got there. I'm no genius but that could be it."

"Well we aren't going to find out here, come on," John said. As the team made their way through peak 15, they were met with an unsettling sight.

"Why are the turrets facing inwards," Liara didn't think something was right. After all, Ragan did say something about Rachni.

"They want to keep their people in as much as they want to keep other people out," darkly explained by Ash.

"No wonder their labs are out here, no witnesses leave here alive and they can hide the evidence of wrongdoing. Goddamn mega corps. They're all the same." They took the elevator up and then went through the door.

"Okay, I'm sending an arrest warrant to the Council to get the mega corps terminated," Ragan was serious about this next part, "They have something that everything should fear. I'm not sure but if it is something that I think it is, then the mega corps will be going to prison for Hostage and Attempt of Murder. I think it had to deal with the Rachni. Be careful."

Inside was a cafeteria area for the facility, the damage was worse than the team thought, the walls and windows were destroyed allowing, the planet's cold wind to blow into the building. Because of that almost all of the room was snowed in, burying broking metal beams, exposed electrical wiring, and the tables and chairs of the mess hall. Unfortunately, the team couldn't take in more of the environment as it had some guests, Geth. There are some shock troopers, regular troopers, and a few rocket troopers. The team got to cover as the geth fired at them. John threw a grenade at the machines to thin the herd. Liara used her singularity field to send them flying.

As the battled continued, a loud thud came from nowhere and the fight was temporarily stopped as everyone was looking around for the source of the noise. The squad came closer together, at the bottom of the staircase, standing back to back, watching their surroundings nervously. A loud inhuman shriek could be heard, and several large, very familiar insect creatures came in and attacked. Their first target was the Geth, the team watched in awe as the machines desperately tried to fight them off. The battle was short and brutal but the insect creatures were not done, they had their sights on the team.

"Fuck, Rachni…" John growled. They then came down the stairs with their giant tentacles primed and ready.

"What are they," Liara asked in alarmed.

"Focus Liara, you can wonder after we stay alive."

"Skipper, bugs incoming," Ash then looked at Wrex and Garrus. They saw a Rachni soldier charge at them but was shot in the head.

"Everyone that has a shotgun, use it. Liara singularity," John then heard another shriek. Wrex and Tali blasted the rachni back and Liara's singularity lifted up the soldiers. John threw a few grenades at the rachni, but they kept coming, with smaller rachni workers joining the fight. Ash then shot a grenade before it landed and Garrus then shot like a soldier with his assault rifle.

"There's too many of them," Liara used warped on the singularity field and made it explode. Send rachni behind the them but dead.

"Shit, fall back to the door behind us," John was covering everyone. Wrex grabbed a Rachni by the tentacle and threw it up in the air followed by a throw field to make it hit the ceiling. The team made a run for the door unfortunately the bugs were quiet fast, and quite capable of firing acidic projectiles. Each time the team had to dodge, only let the Rachni catch up more and more.

"They're catching up," John emptied his grenade pod and threw it back at the charging Rachni. The multiple explosions stunned them, allowing the team to make it to the door and lock it on the other side. As they caught their breaths, they could only hear the sound of something scurrying away, they were safe, for now.  
"Rachni, I can't believe it. I thought Ragan was playing a sick joke on us but they are suppose…" John lifted his hands, Liara stopped talking.

"Dead, I know. We saw them on Bindhu, while we were taking out Cerberus."

"But what are those bugs doing here," Ash was confused.

"Want to bet this is where Cerberus got their Rachni from," John then heard Ragan voice.

"I saw everything. And I did a quick analyze on them. Those are pure blood Rachni. But the last queen was dead. Something is not right," Ragan cut the comm link.

"But for what reason," Liara asked.

"Super soldiers under their control, I'm guessing. After all, what's more super than a pissed off Rachni under your control," John looked over his shoulder.

"And my mother came here? For what reason?"

"Another reason we need to find her," Garrus said. "We can take that elevator behind us."

The team went down the elevator only to meet soldiers with weapons drawn and aimed for them. At the same time the team was also in combat mode, John and Laira flared up their biotics, and the rest had their weapons primed and ready. Their opponents were Human security guards, all in white armor. The tension was thick until someone spoke up. "Stop! Calm down! We want no conflict."

The guards lowered their weapons as a dark-skinned bald man came up to meet the team. The team looked at each other and calmed down, while watching the guards carefully. "Sorry, the man spoke again. "We didn't mean to threaten you. We just didn't know who was on the elevator."

Ash raised her brow, "So you really thought giant space spiders could work an elevator? I think you give them too much credit."

"Trust me, those giant space spiders are smarter than they look," the man pointed at a man that was half-eaten by the Rachni. "One of them popped out of the floor grates and took him down before we could react. By the time we reacted, it was too late."

"Who are you," John looked at the man.

"Captain Ventralis, Binary Helix Corporate Security. My team and I have ran on stims for days now. So we're a bit jumping."

"I'm John Shepard, Council Spectre and Alliance Navy Commander. How long have you been down here?"

"Over a week. The aliens had broken out of the hot labs and next thing we know they were clawing into my command post. Lost a lot of good people to those… things." John looked at Ventralis' team, they looked absolutely demoralized, the Spectre had nothing but sympathy for them for having to face this nightmare for that long. "An Asari was here to deal with the problem, but we haven't heard anything."

John nodded, "Do you know how to get to the hot lab?"

Ventralis nodded, "Yes, speak to a Salarian named Palon, he's trying to restart Mira, the main VI." He then gave the Spectre a key card. "Just use this card and the tram should take you to the labs."

The team nodded and made their way to Dr. Palon. As they were walking, they saw people look up and watch them, their eyes held the same demoralized look as Ventalis' men. They then see a red Salarian working on the large terminal. "Doc," John then saw the Salarian jumped.

"Don't do that," he said. John looked back at the team and they shrugged.

"I heard that you can get us to the hot labs."

Palon blinked. "Ah yes, I am almost through, I just need to connect this and…" The lights came on and the machines came alive. A hologram of a Human woman appeared.

"All system restored," VI said. John took out the key card and the VI scanned it. They headed down into the maintenance area and took the tram into the hot labs. They came out expecting a fight, but there was none. The trip to the hot labs was too easy. John didn't like it.

As they entered the hot labs, they heard a cold female voice. "You do not know the privilege of being a mother." Surprised, they swung around weapons ready and faced an older Asari. They Asari wore a dark blue gown that shows a modest amount of cleavage and a headdress of the same color. By the looks of her, you wouldn't be able to tell that she was several centuries old. She stood at a comfortable distance, up a small case of stairs on a raised platform; she looked down on them with cold eyes full of murderous intent.

John looked back at Liara, she looked downtrodden. "Mother…," she said sadly.


	39. Chapter 28: Noveria part 5

Chapter 28: Noveria part 5

"There's power in creation, Human," Benezia explained. "To shape a life. Turn it towards happiness and despair." She then gave a cold look at the structure next to her. "Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies." Her cold glare was turned to the team, the team was on their guard, the look she gave meant she is serious, deadly serious to say the least.

"Give up, Benezia… come quietly and I'll show mercy, but if you force my hand…," John aimed for her head. "I'll put you down and I rather not take down the mother of a friend." Benezia gave a chilling laugh; the team were slightly unsettled by it.

"Really? Is that why you brought my disappointment of a daughter, to sway me? You truly are naïve, human." He gaze at Liara, and the young Asari felt very small in her gaze. "Tell me Liara, what have you told them about me hmm?"

Liara lowered her head. "What could I say Mother? That you're insane? Evil?! I just want… to save you and Shiala wants to save you too." Laira shook her head. "Please stop this mother, please…"

"I won't," Benezia answered her daughter. She then glowed blue and looked at John. "Tell me Human, have you ever faced an Asari commando before? Few have…"

"I have faced them and I killed all of them that faced me," Benezia was shocked by the tone of his voice. "You'd kill your own daughter, for Saren." John narrowed his eyes at the older Asari.

Benezia gave a cold laugh, "Kill her?" She shook her head. "I would burn my world if it means bringing Saren greatness!" The team was taken aback by her declaration. She was absolutely beyond reasoning, they would have to fight here.

"She's nuts…" John looked back at Liara, who was shaking her head at Ash. Utterly defeated with tears down her cheeks, Liara looked at John.

"Sorry Liara," he whispered. John glowed blue and launched a strong biotic force at the Matriarch. But Benezia waved away the field like it was a piece of paper in the wind. Ash fired at the Asari with her pistol and Wrex was using biotics to stagger her but everything bounced off of her, she was in a biotic barrier and doing by the distortions in the air, it was incredibly powerful.

"Don't underestimate me, human." Benezia waved her hand again and a statis field nearly engulfs John, but Tali jumped in the way, she was complete immobilized. Calmly and slowly, Benezia walked back some steps, to make way for several Asari commands appearing from behind her. "Kill them."

"Skipper!" She looked at John, who was knelt down by Tali and waved Ash off. Ash knew what that meant. It meant John wasn't going to be fighting. "Liara use singularity on the commandos. Garrus shot them with Wrex."

Liara made the commandos fly along with the canisters in the air. Wrex and Garrus started shooting at the canisters while Ashley was shooting at the Asari. The commandos flew back, dead from the force, Benezia glowed blue and another door opened. Another batch of commandos came in, but Liara glowed a dark blue and before the commandos could react she crushed them against the wall. Her powers flared more and in the end the commandos were nothing more than bloody smears on the wall. Liara breathed heavily and gaze at her mother.

"Whoa…" Wrex, Ash and Garrus said in unity.

"Impressive, daughter, I see you had improved on Shiala's lessons. It's a shame my sister can no longer see the light, but maybe you can." A window broken opened and Ragan flew in. Benezia saw the Human come up but was kicked in the head, making her fly to the other side of the room.

"Never," Liara said.

Tali dropped hard in the corner of the room and the stasis field finally wore off, just in time to be almost hit by a biotic powered bow. Tali dodge as the box was smashed against the wall, she looked around the room. It was complete chaos. Bullets, Ragan fighting in hand to hand combat with the Matriarch, boxes, people and dark energy flew around the room. John got up and joined the battle after getting Tali to cover, just in time as Benezia had one of the doors opened and kicked Ragan towards the team.

"Geth incoming," Ash yelled. The team quickly dug in and supported John, who had already begun working on his omni-tool. Soon, the geth's weapons blew up taking with them their allied. Only Benezia remained.

"It's over, give up, or your daughter," Johh walked slowly. The Matriarch was folding down, sliding towards the ground and leaned against her desk. While she had great power, it also meant she got tired much easier.

"This is not over. Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is clear." Benezia glowed a fiant blue, but it faded as fast as it came, the matriarch was completely at her limit.

"This is your only choice, drag this on and I will kill you,"

The Asari glared. "I will not betray him!" Her hands rested on the table, supporting her whole body. "You will… you…ah…" Suddenly but slowly, Benezia rose again and turned around to face the team. John and Ash got ready to fight, but Liara came between them and shook her head. She turned to face her mother.  
"Mother?"

"You must listen," Benezia saw the team lower their weapons. "Saren still whispers in my mind."

"Yeah because you're fucking indoctrinated," Ragan shook his head. "You knew what Saren was like. You should have stayed away from him. He was in the First Contact War and killed his own brother in cold blood while they were fighting. He is a traitor."

"I can fight his compulsions briefly. But the indoctrinations is too strong." John narrowed his eyes at the woman looking for a trick but something felt different about the Matriarch. The Spectre couldn't put his finger on it. One minute she's defiant but her attitude changes quickly, even her eyes didn't care the coldness from earlier, it was sad and maybe even afraid.

"You expect us to believe that," Ash raised her weapon. John then came forward. "Skipper?"

"Why are you able to break free now?"

"I only managed to seal a part of my mind away from the indoctrination. Saving it for a moment when I could help destroy him. I will not last long." Her voice felt strained, like she was fighting to keep her mind hers, but she kept talking the strain in her voice became more pronounced. He sudden remembered with Shiala had said on Feros.

**After the Thorian Creature's Death – Feros**

_"How is that possible?! Liara asked in shocked. "Mother is one of the strongest people I know, how could Saren influenced her so much?"_

_"Indoctrination," Ragan was still asleep but they heard what he said._

_"Saren had a warship, Sovereign," John interrupted her._

_"You mean the Reaper?"_

_"Reapers… yes. It is unlike anything I have seen before, it is enormous and incredibly powerful. And it has an insidious ability, the ability to dominate the minds of his followers. It is what that man said, indoctrination. The process is slow at first, but in the end it is there is no hope. Unless you mind-meld someone."_

_"And… mother fell victim of it."_

_Shiala just nodded gravely and sadly. "I'm afraid so… she may not be so lucky like I was, she was the closest to Saren…," he gulped before continuing. "I'm sorry little wing…" Liara lowered her head and tears flowed, she walked out of the area._

**NOW**

All of a sudden, Shiala's plea made so much more sence, she wanted John to bring Liara not to save Benezia, but to say goodbye and to kill herself. Shiala truly believed Benezia is beyond saving, John looked at her as her body shook; she even had a look of pain her face. She didn't look like anyone that was in control, indoctrination was real, no doubts about it. "So you could turn on me," John said sadly.

"Yes, people are not themselves when they are around Saren. You'll idolize him, worship him, you would do anything for him," She said shakily. "The key is his ship, Savereign…"

"Shiala said that same thing on Feros, and I remember seeing it on Eden Prime. Where did Saren get it?"

"I don't know, but I know this, the Geth didn't build it as even they do not understand it. It's almost like they worship it," She was silent for a while until she spoke up, "when it returns, I will be lost and this time forever… kill me."

John and looked at her blankly. "W-what," Ash was now confused.

"No," Liara cried out. "There has to be an way to free you!"

"I'm sorry little wing, but there is no freedom for me, not anymore." Benezia hung low. "You do not know the horror of seeing your hands maim and murder while your mind is trapped, screaming of you to stop." She then looked to John with tears in her eyes. "Please, before my mind is not my own, kill me, I would rather die as myself than be Saren's slave."

John nodded and gave a gun to Liara. He nodded and moved his head towards Benezia. "NO," Liara screamed.

"Don't, do anything," Ragan went to Benezia. He started looking at her. "Liara, are you familiar with mind-melding." She nodded her head. "Then do use your mind-melding on her."

"Wait you mean I can get saved," Benezia looked at him. He nodded his head. "Before you do that, I must repent…" Benezia tells them that Saren sent here to recover the locations of the Mu Relay from the Rachni queen. The Mu Relay was lost four thousand years ago when it was pushed out of its orbit when a nearby star went supernova, but amazingly it wasn't damaged. The supernova's wake eventually swathed the Mu Relay in hot gas and dust, meaning the relay was impossible to detect as scanners can't pick up 'cold' ojbects like the relays in interstellar space. Salarians caused the star to become a supernova. They feared what might happened.

However, the queen knew due to their ability to pass down memories on the genetic level. So using her biotics, Benezia takes the coordinates for the Mu Relay from the Rachni queen's mind, and as she put it sadly, she was not gentle.

"Do you have it? We need that data," John looked at Liara.

"Of course, I was not myself, but… I should have been stronger," Benezia then stared working on the data. "I transcribed the data on an OSD. Please, take it." She handed it over.

"Will this be enough," Tali asked.

"It will have to be, Saren didn't tell me his next plan, but you must find out quickly. I transmitted the coordinates to Saren just before you arrived." Her body shook violently and held her head as she screamed in pain.

"Mother!" Liara didn't believe it.

"Stay back, Liara! I can't… his teeth are at my ear. Fingers on my spine." She turned around, her walk unsteady. "You should… uh… you should…"

"Mother," Liara cried out. "I… don't leave! Fight him!"

"You've always made me proud, Liara," Benezia said with tears in her face. "I love you. I'm sorry I've never told you enough…" John reluctly raised his gun but Ragan grabbed the gun and broke it.

"Mother," Liara cried out. She ran towards her and knelled besides her. She starts working on the mind-melding but fails. "No…. It can't… you can't just leave me here. No…" The older asari weakly placed her hand on the young Asari's face, wiping away her tears.

"Goodnight little wing, I will see you again at the dawn." She coughed up her violet blood, she wouldn't have long now. She gazed up at the Spectres. "Shepards, tell my sister, I'm sorry for everything…" John and Ragan nodded and then the Matriarch smiled as her hand fell from her daughter's face as her eyes finally closed. Liara embraced her mother and started crying.  
Tali walked towards her. She laid a hand on Liara's shoulder, and gently pulled her up. She fell int her arms, and Tali hugged her. Liara continued crying on the Quarians's shoulders. "Shh, we're all here for you." John went to the controls and saw the giant Rachni queen.

"Usually when I see you creatures, I kill you without a second thought," Ragan looked at him and shook his head. Ragan knew what John was going to do. Release the monster out. "But…" he looked back at the dead Matriarch and her crying daughter. "There's been enough blood, enough sadness for today." He released the controls holding the queen and opened the door. The Rachni looked back almost as if it was thanking him for his mercy. The queen ran into the Noverian wilderness.

"You idiot," Ragan yelled out. "Not only have you doomed us, but now history will repeat. You better go after it…" John punched Ragan in the stomach.

"You don't tell me what to do when I'm a higher rank than you are and I'm a Spectre," John's face showed he was serious and had some anger in it.

"Are you sure that was that right move, Skipper," Ash asked softly

John sighed. "I don't know I just want to put this place behind us."

"You are smart to show mercy but dumb to a Rachni," Wrex agreed with Ragan. "Now another war will happen and it won't be with the Reapers, but with the Rachni as well."

Later the team was back on the Normandy after the finishing the clean-up at Peak 15, back on the Normandy, John did his usual debriefing to the team, he didn't see Liara at the debriefing, but understood why. After the meeting was adjourned, John made a call to Feros.

"John, is she…," Shiala asked.

"She couldn't be saved," John said. Shiala looked down.

"I see… at least my sister is with the goddess now. Tell me, what did Benezia say?"

"She said she was proud of Liara and that she was sorry for everything."

Tears ran down her face, "Thank you, Shepard, you have no idea what this means to me. Please take good care of my niece; she is the only family I have left."

"I will Shiala, all of the Normandy will, you have my word." Shiala image faded. He then saw Ash walking towards him. "How is she?"

"She's calmed own, Tali, Kaiden and Garrus are with her and you should join them. I asked Ragan but he keeps refusing." Ash didn't want to say why Ragan was refusing. She knew about it.

"I will," John walked to the elevator. He turned back, "Ash, about what happened between us…" Ash raised her hand.

"Water under the bridge, seeing what we saw today, makes it easy not to hold stupid grudges. And Ragan threatened me to be transferred to another outpost. I'm happy for you and Tali, I can truly say that now. Go get her tiger."

John smiled at her, "Thanks Ash."

Ash smiled back, "No problem, John."


	40. Chapter 29: R&R and a Groupie

Chapter 33: R&amp;R and a Groupie

John was in the comm room with Ragan. They were briefing the council on the mission of Noveria… of course the councilors couldn't go five minutes without complaining about John's so-called mistakes. From destroying Prothean ruins on Therum, to causing 'trouble' on Noveria. John really started to wonder why he briefs to the council at all…

"Enough of that councilors, some of the mega corps betrayed us there and we had to do something about it. Place Sterling was a dirty, evil bitch – no more – dirty cop," Ragan then showed them the evidence and the councilors' eyes went wide. They were looking at the proof of money being transferred from Qui'in's account to Cerberus. And that Anoleis ordered the office to be under the red tape – course that meant any law enforcement not to be allowed in at any cost unless it deals with company or a Spectre is asked.

"I see. We will arrest Qui'in at once. Thank you for bringing the information to us," Sparatus, the turian councilor, was not pleased by this but he didn't bother to ask why. "We will arrest Sterling as well."

"Sterling is dead. I had to kill her after she and her guards tried to kill us," Ragan said some remorse. "Had to be one of us or someone would have gotten killed and you be missing a Spectre or two."

The Asari councilor was next to speak, "Thank you for the informations Spectre R. Shepard. Now, Commander: You found the Rachni on Noveria?!" Now John remembers, because they always find out in the end…

"Yes, you shouldn't be surprised; didn't you read my report about the findings of the Rachni on Binthu," The councilors looked at each other and then looked at the Human before nodding. "Good, because this wasn't Cerberus modified. This rachni that were on Noviera was pure blood. Ragan did a quick analyze on them when we killed some. He looked at the body and stared researching on it. Saren and Benezia had a Rachni queen." That made the councilors all shaken. "I released it…"

"You what… Do you have any idea how many generations until they overrun the galaxy again," the Salarian councilor agreed with Sparatus. Ragan looked at him and gave John the cold stare.

"Thank you councilors. It's glad that not only does our Krogan, Urdnot Wrex, agree with me but you do as well," Ragan heard the councilors laugh. "I take it they agree with me. John, you are just repeating history. Councilors if I may, I require that we spy on the Rachni queen and her servants." The councilors nodded and then looked at John with a murderous look.

"This isn't a joke! John, your actions could endanger us all! I agree with Ragan. If the Rachni try to overrun the galaxy again, another Rachni war and then Krogan Rebellions will happen again. But instead of the Krogan, it might as well be the Batarians, Vorcha, Humans, Turians, or a different race," Sparatus shook his head.

"Yes, because it's all about you, isn't it," John reached for the comm button but Ragan slaps his hand out of the way. "Great, you're siding with them." Ragan huffed while the councilors looked at John.

"Commander, we need to something about you. If you keep this up, then we will be forced to revoke your Spectre Status and authorize all Spectres to kill you if we hear another mess up like this. Anyway, we are done complaining. We have some troubling news," the salarian councilor looked at him and sighed. "The human ambassador, Donnel Udina, has been messaged by an unknown person. It says something about a treaty for three groups. Those groups are the Council, Alliance and – and you're going to love this next part because I think it was funny – Cerberus." Ragan's face became red as lava. He was about to storm out but he controlled himself. He hated anything to deal with Cerberus.

"Yes, and this time: they really want a treaty. I'm not sure if it is worth it though. None of us do," Sparatus then looked at the Asari councilor. She was staying out of this because she didn't want to be part of anything with Cerberus.

"Thank you for the update on that. I guess now we have to kick Udina off the Citadel," John had a big smirk across his face. "Cerberus and Udina can't be trusted. It was Udina's fault that a human colony wasn't saved in time by the Batarian Raid. And Cerberus did something horrible to an Alliance Admiral. I say we don't…"

"This is not your call Commander. Illusive Man – or what you Humans call him – has asked for this and required a Spectre to spy on the organizations before most of it goes rogue," The Asari councilor spoke. She was right, Cerberus was getting out of hand, and it looked like they were going rogue.

"I understand Councilors, thank you for the update," Ragan was reaching the comm button.

"Sergeant, don't cut us…" the Asari said before her image faded out. John was laughing while Ragan sighed and pinched bridge of his nose. Dealing with council was starting to become a chore, one big headache inducing chore, if he had known that this was what being a Spectre was like, he would have kept his mouth shut. Ragan quickly walked out of the room, leaving John in his thoughts. '_Us and our big ass mouths._' He then heard giggling in the com room and chuckled a little.

"You can come out now, Rookie," Tali came in the room and hugged John.

"You know, Ragan cutting them off when they annoy you aren't going to make you friends with them," Tali rubbed her head on John's chest.

"Yeah I know, but it looked good. I guess I know what he was up to," He joked. He then grew serious, "But for real though, we've been run ragged the last few months, and after Noveria, I think we're entitled to some R&amp;R."

Tali tilted her head. "R… &amp;R?"

John chuckled, "Rest and Relaxation, a short vacation of sorts."

"Oh, that would be nice, but with the mission…" John sighed when Tali said that. He had to find out about Saren's next move and put an end to it. He shook his head, he could worry about that later, and Hackett, the Council or even Anderson could contact him, if they found something. Ragan also had some contacts, some Alliance Generals and Admirals can keep in contact with John when Ragan gave them permission to find Saren. Ragan even had contacts in all the governments, including the Quarian, Yahg, Vorcha, and Batarians – the Batarians and the Humans were never on good terms but Ragan needed all the help he can get and they agreed to do so.

"Yeah, I know, but it's only for three days tops, plus, I don't want a stress related mutiny on my hands," John had a feeling Ragan would do something about that but then again, they were cousins so he wouldn't do that to family but John didn't know. Tali smiled at John.

"Well, you're my captain, so I'll follow anywhere," She said before John kissed her mouthpiece.

"Thanks, I'll make the announcement and Ragan will do the same thing. Plus I think we're overdue for a second date, anyway. Tali bounced on her toes excitedly. John chuckled. He and Tali made their way to the CIC. The crew looked at them, it had been a shock to them when they found out John was dating a Quarian, in fact they had made a bet on who was going to win the affections of their leader. Liara was in the running, even though she had eyes for Garrus, Ash was another contender but she had eyes on Ragan due. She and John being so alike, and the fact Ash was kept on despite being the granddaughter of General Williams. Even Kaiden was running due to his history with John, though it was more like wishful thinking of some of the gay members of the crew. The only ones who had bet on Tali was Engineering, Dr. Chakwas, Joker, Pressly, and the alien members, so imagine their surprise, when some of them walked to John making out with Tali, or at they though it was making out.

"No pressure, sayang," Tali joked to John. John rolled his eyes and opened the ship's comm.

"Alright listen up, we'll be taking a three-day shore leave at the Citadel. All those that want to take it are welcome to it," The crew erupted into cheers in the CIC and over the com. "One more thing, stay out of trouble, you get arrested by C-Sec or any one I'm leaving your ass in jail, but other than that get fucking wasted. If you are on the day shift and want to go on the shore leave, contact Ragan and he will see what he can do."

"Well, you sure know to rally a crowed or in this case a crew," Tali smiled.

"Not the way Anderson would do it, but it's pretty damn close."

The Normandy glided into dock at the Citadel for the start of the crew's shore leave. John's team was in the CIC, the door opened and the ground team walked to the Citadel elevator.

"So, what you guys going to do," Tali asked. Kaiden and Ash smirked.

"We're going to the club, going man or woman hunting," Kaiden said.

John raised a brow, "Uh-huh and why are Liara and Garrus going with you?" Ash whispered to John and Tali, John didn't expect her to answer the question.

"We invited Liara to cheer her up, the girl needs something to take her mind off her mother."

Tali smiled, "That nice of you, Ash. And Garrus?"

Kaiden smirked. "As soon as he heard that we were taking Liara man or woman hunting, he jumped aboard. Probably to make sure no one hits on her." Garrus blushed while Kaiden laughed.

"It's not that, just making sure no gets attacked," Garrus sheepishly said. "After all, the Citadel can be dangerous…"

John and Ragan looked at him. "So that's why you're taking you weapons to a club on the presidium? The safest place on the Citadel…"

Garrus rubbed his neck. "I'm always ready?"

Liara smiled and then kissed Garrus' cheek. "Thank you for thinking about me, but I doubt you'll need guns."

"Well… I… You… See," everyone laughed at Garrus stuttering.

"What are you going Ragan," Ash heard Ragan give a loud sigh.

"That time for me to remember what happened years ago. Cerberus burning the village in Japan. A little Target practice will help me," Ragan then touches the sniper rifle on his back. "I have all six types. Assault rifles, sniper rifle, pistol, heavy weapons, SMG, shotguns. I got it made and I'll be happy for it. All I need to do is go down to one of the C-Sec areas and tell them 'I'm a Spectre. I need to target practice.' Then I'm in." John was thinking about that. He then started working on his idea for a test on them. "Jane is coming with me because she hasn't been on that many missions," he looks at John.

Tali smiled and heard Ash ask her a question, "Going on your second date?"

"Yes," Tali said.

"Nice, be good to her, Skipper," Asked joked but really did mean it. "Big sister has an eye on you."

"Yeah, yeah," John grumbled. Just as they were about to enter, they heard Wrex coming.

"Hold the elevator," he said.

"Where are you going," Ash asked. She then saw tickets in his hands. "What's that?"

Wrex cleared his throat. "I'm going to five plays," the rest of the team looked at him blankly; they didn't expect a Krogan having a taste for culture. "What?"

"You… going to a play," Garrus was confused.

"What kind," Liara saw Wrex clear his throat again.

"Elcor version of 'Hamlet,' then the 'King and I,' followed by 'Romeo and Juliet' – Hanar version – then two others. 'My Vengeance Ends Now' and 'Salem'."

"Sweet, the classics, you have good tastes Wrex," the team looked at Kaiden, "I… Uh saw them before the mission to Eden Prime."

"I seen 'My Vengeance Ends Now.' That is a good play. I can't believe it was written in 2012 though. Great Greek mythology parts on it," Ragan then turn his head.

"Don't be ashamed Alenko and Sergeant Shepard, we cultured people have to stick together," Garrus and John stifled a laughed which earned an elbow from Liara and Tali. And a slap by Ash. Wrex looked at them and laughed. The elevator made it to the top and the team went their separate ways.

"So, what do you want to do, Rookie," Tali smiled.

"How about some shopping? We could use some supplies and try to decorate your cabin." John raised a brow.

"We're on vacation. And you're thinking about work – not only of the mission but my cabin?" Tali gave him a look. "Fine, we'll go but I'm getting something special. Two things special." Tali was about to say something but John put his finger on her mouthpiece. "And the pilgrimage gift doesn't count towards it."

"Fine, I can see this is important to you," John and Tali went down to the wards. The wards were just busy and full of energy as always. And unlike the presidium, there was not as many people staring at them. The couple made their way to some of the stores, although John wasn't a shopping person, it was nice to just unwind ad relax a little, it also didn't hurt he had eye candy on his arm too.

"How about this," Tali was looking at some of the tech.

"That? That has to be out of date, besides I heard that omni-tool was buggy as hell," John looked at it for a little while.

"You forget, I'm a Quarian, John, we can make any old tech sing," she said proudly. John rolled his eyes.

"Well, forgive me for questioning your almighty tech knowledge," he said playfully. That earned him an elbow.

"Bosh'tet," Tali smiled at him.

John chuckled while rubbing his stomach. "Anyway, I got you something." He held up a necklace with a silver-colored chain, on the chain was a light purple jewel in the shape of a diamond and on the each chain was little purple jewles. John put it around her neck, Tali touch the necklace. She had never received a gift before, it was a waste of resources on the fleet if it wasn't useful. She wrapped her arms around the Human's neck and hugged him.

"Keelah, it's beautiful. Thank you John," she said.

John smiled. "Anything for my girl." Just as they were having fun, a blond hair man, in dark navy clothes came up to them.

"Are you Commander John Shepard," the man asked. The couple looked at him.

"Yeah, what do you want," John asked as the blond man's eyes lit up.

"You are! I'm Conrad Verner, I'm so honored to meet you. They said you killed a hundred Geth on Eden Prime."

"And you believed that? John's good, but a hundred Geth is a bit too much, don't you think," Tali looked at the blond man.

Verner smiled. "Of course, Shepard is awesome," he wrapped his arm around John.

"Yeah… I know I can, but how about some personal space, before I punch you in the face," Verner broke away. John didn't know what to think about Verner, he was an idiot, yes, but there was something about him that crept the Spectre off. Verner then looked at John with those star-struck eyes again.

"Oh sorr, I know you're busy, but do you have time for an autograph," Verner was excited about this. He raised his arm.

"Anything for a fan, I guess," John said with a little bit of fear.

"Thanks, my wife will be so impressed," Verner said. John raised a brow. '_You have a wife? I guess there really is someone for everyone in the galaxy?_' He gave his autograph and Verner walked away, or rather skipped away like a schoolgirl who just met her favorite pop star. John shook his head as Tali tried hard to stifle a giggle.

"Aw, you have a fan," Tali said with her head leaning into John's shoulder.

John rubbed his neck. "Yeah, but do they have to be so damn creepy?" Tali giggled, John looked at her. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Maybe a little."

"Are you hungry?" Tali nodded. "Alright, let's get out of here." Little did they know they were about to be joined by a blond haired stalker. The couple went up to the presidium to a levo/dextro restaurant, this time the people stared at the couple. John gave them a scary look and the patrons minded their business. John heard the manger yell at the patarons.

"HEY, NEXT TIME YOU LOOK AT A QUARIAN LIKE THAT, YOU'RE FIRED," his voice was harsh and very deep. It sounded like he was part Russian. The patrons looked at the manger and nodded. "Sorry about that."

"Hey, no problem. I don't care about them, they can bite me for all I care," the manger laughed at John. "I see you can agree with me." The manger then walked back to the office. Tali just smiled.

"Quite the romantic, aren't you," she joked. John chuckled.

"Anything for my girl," he said. As they sat down to eat, John noticed something at the seat behind them. John narrowed his eyes.

"What's wrong," Tali had a sense of something was going to be chaotic.

"I may be going crazy but I could have sworn we're being watched."

"Maybe you're seeing something?" Tali then saw John get up as he noticed some blonde hair.

"I don't think so." John lifted the man in a lift field and walked towards the man. "Verner?"

The man gave a meek wave, "Hi." John dropped him and Verner got up, now facing a very annoyed Shepard and Tali.

"Have you been following us? And no lying," Tali didn't like this.

Verner rubbed his neck and looked at them. "Yeah."

John crossed his arms, "Why?"

"Well funny story, I called my wife to tell her I got your autograph and…"

"She didn't believe you, so what do you want a picture?"

"Can you?" John sighed and Verner looked at him.

"If I do this, will you leave me in peace? I don't know if you noticed but I am on a date."

"Yeah, yeah, scout's honor."

"Do you have a camera?" Verner gets a camera out. "Of course…" Verner gave Tali the camera, as Verner came uncomfortably close to John. The Spectre prayed that this would be quick. It took a while for Tali get a handle of a human camera, but with Verner coaching her through it, Tali was able to take the picture.

"Thanks. Do you want a copy?"

"No, I rather not remember this." Verner waved goodbye and left the couple in peace to eat. The couple decided to go to the club, again not knowing they were being followed… again. Once they made it to the club, and saw people dancing on the floor, John was starting to regret this. This was the same club that Ragan beat those two thugs up.

"Why did you drag me here? You know that this is the same club Ragan won that fight with those thugs that tried to harass you, right?"

"I know and I think it would be good to see if they honored him."

John rolled his eyes, "Ragan is never the one to be honored. If he gets honored, he tears it down so that it is never recorded."

Tali tilted her head. "Really?"

John palmed his face, "Never mind, let's just dance." The couple danced for a while until they saw Ash, Kaiden, Liara, and Garrus. The four was having a blast of shouting at their commander's good dancing skills.

Ragan and Jane came in the club and sat next to them. Tali and John went over to see them.

"Hey, guys," Tali said.

"Hey Tali, Skipper how your date has been," John sighed as Ash's question.

"I would have been fine, if it wasn't for my crazy stalker," Ragan looked at John and shook his head.

"You have a stalker?"

"Unfortunately," John then felt a tug from Tal. "What it is, Tali?"

"I don't think brush with fame is over, that pribadi is back." John looked at her.

"You're kidding?" Tali shook her head.

"No, in fact he's coming this way." John palmed his face.

"Need some help," Garrus offered.

"Please? I think I'm at the end of my rope with this guy," he said. Verner came over to the team, or rather danced over to them. And on that point he danced rather poorly, in fact John couldn't help but notice, he danced worse than Jane.

"Hi, John Shepard," Verner greeted. Ragan placed a pistol on the table and slid it to Garrus, who nodded.

"Hey Vener," deadpanned John was. "What do you want this time?"

"Me I would never…"

"Don't even try it, dumbass," Ragan said. "What do you want? And be quick before I shoot you in the head." Garrus and Kaiden looked at him with fear.

"Well, I wonder if you could sign me up for the Spectres," Verner said.

"You… a Spectre," Kaiden barely stifling laughed. "Ragan tell him what is required to be a Spectre."

"Spectres are for Special Tactics and Reconaniance missions. If you are not for a ruthless background of getting the job done at any of the costs, you cannot be one," Ragan stated that out. "Spectres are forged from fires of wars or battles. Sometimes both."

Kaiden then looked at Verner, "What skill do you have?"

"Uh…" Kaiden shook his head.

"I thought so."

"Not going to happen," John said.

"But…" John sighed at Verner.

Garrus slid the gun back to Ragan and pointed his head at Verner. "I didn't want to do this…," Ragan got up from his seat and took the gun off the table.

"What are you…," Verner asked but was stopped when Ragan pulled the trigger and the bullet hit Verner's foot. "AHHH!" Verner was on the floor holding his foot.

"See? You don't have what it takes, if I was shot in the foot, I would still be able to fight, you can't," Ragan pointed that out. "Understood?" Verner nodded. "Good now get out of here." Verner got up and limped out of the club.

"You sure that was a good idea," Tali looked at Ragan.

"Probably not, but at this point I didn't want him in the Spectres. He would make the Spectre unit look like a bunch of lazy idiots. It was better than killing him. This way he can live the pain and rethink about it," Ragan said. John pulled Tali to the dance floor until they went back to the Normandy.

Later back on the Normandy after an interesting day Tali and John decided to rest in their room. John dropped on the bed, exhausted; between the dancing and the stalking antics of Verner he had enough shore leave for a while. He looked at Tali, he was more worried about Tali not having a good time because of Verner's interupptions.

"Sorry for a sucky date," Tali smiled

"Cheer up, it wasn't all bad," John looked at her.

"Oh yeah, how?" Tali unlocked the seals on her helmet. "What are you…?"

"Remember when I said I was working on a surprised, well this was part of it," she said as she took her helmet off. John stared at her with wide eyes, Tali was beautiful; she had mid-length black hiar. Her skin was smooth with a light purple color with dark lines running along her eyebrows. Her eyes had no pupils, and faintly glowed in the darkness, if wasn't Tali, he would have thought it was kind of eerie but that just added to her other worldly beauty. It was incredible to see how similar her facial structure was to humans, a little slender than a Human's face, but otherwise she could be mistaken as a Human. While examining her face, John didn't notice that he had been staring at her for a little over two minutes causing the Quarian to blush.

"Um… do you like it… my face I mean? I've never shown anyone my face except my father and mother," Tali said nervously.

John smiled and all of a sudden he grabbed her and kissed her deeply. Tali moaned as her lips and his met, after a moment, they stopped. "Won't you get sick?"

Tali caught her breath. "Yes, but I took some precautions, so the reaction will be less."

"Awesome." He grabbed her again and kissed her. He then stopped. "Can you sleep without a helmet? I would love to wake up to see my sexy Quarian girlfriend's face."

Tali smiled. "I thought you never ask." They spent the night in each other arms. '_Today was so worth it,_' he thought with a smile.


	41. Chapter 30: Frenzy of the Rachni part 1

Chapter 20: Frenzy of the Rachni part 1

John was on the Crew Deck arm wrestling Wrex, with no leads on Saren, things had been boring to say the least. So to kill his boredom, he had gotten the random idea of arm wrestling Wrex, in which the amused Krogan agreed to. The Krogan was strong, so the Spectre had use his biotics to compensate, and still it wasn't enough, but John kept trying much to the amusement of the old Krogan.

Wrex laughed. "Still not going to give up are you? You've got a quad that's for sure." Amused at this. Ragan comes in with Jane and the look at them. Ragan shook his head while Jane laughed at John.

"Keep laughing, old man, I may surprise you," John said, struggling to get the Krogan's hand down. "Son of a…" Wrex yawned and slammed the human's hand on the table causing John to fall to the floor, the Korgan laughed as he got off the floor. Ragan looked up and pinched the bridge of his nose. John's comm opened. "What is it, Joker?"

"We got an SOS, Commander," Joker then looked behind him to make sure no one was hearing the next part. "It might be the fucking Rachni you released on Noveria."

"Got it Joker," John cut off the comm link. "I'll get you next time, just you wait, Wrex."

"Ha! That'll be the day," Wrex said, the Krogan went back to the lower deck and John went to the CIC.

"Joker patch it through." The comm opened to the sound of gunfire and screams, whoever was contacting him was in a huge fight from the sound of it.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is Lieutenant Marie Durand, 314th Infantry. Alliance 10th Frontier Division," the woman said. "The listening post had been overrun by an unknown hostile life-forms. Requesting immediate extraction." More sounds could be heard, footsteps, it looks like they were running from whatever was attacking their team. Then he heard a very familiar sound, inhuman screeching. Rachni were there. Ragan was right. John had doomed one planet by his actions for the queen to be releashed.

"Oh shit…" John said. He remembered his release of the Rachni queen; but the queen was on Noveria, so it couldn't be from the same queen he releashed, could it? Something was very fishy about this, they had one course. "Joker, get us the coordinates, now!"

"On it, Commander."

The Mako landed on Nepmos and made their way to the listening post. "I can't believe it, more Rachni… could it be from the…," Liara was talking but John interrupted her.

"I don't think so… or at least I don't know…."

"I can believe it. You doomed one planet now, next two more and then doubled after that," Ragan was pissed at him. "You SHOULDN'T HAVE SPARED IT! You know what the Rachni are capable of. And if the Rachni are alive, then the Krogan Rebellions will happened AGAIN! History repeats itself. Fucking dumb Salarians found there relay and unleashed the Rachni and now you spared the queen and unleashed the Rachni again." Wrex and Tali nodded in agreement.

"It was a mistake to release the queen, they're craft bastards, and breed like crazy," Wrex looked at him. "What the hell were you think releasing the queen in the wild?!" John lowered his head, his moment of mercy may have come back to bite the whole universe – instead of the galaxy – in the ass, he shook his head, there was still much he didn't know he would save the self-pity for when he got all the information.

"I have no excuse, Ragan and Wrex. But hopefully we can fix this…," he believed he could and he would.

"For all of our sakes, you better hope we can…," Wrex said sharply. They approached a camp in the middle of the some nasty fighting with the Rachni, the workers and soldiers were coming in droves. The Alliance soldiers were holding their own, but it was obvious that they were battered hard from the insects. Wrex activates the cannons and blasted the Rachni soldiers with the Mako's main gun. Ragan got on the mini-gun turret and started picking off soldiers that were coming from behind.

"We have their attention, Commander," Liara said nervously. The Rachni pursued the Mako, spitting acid at the tank, John tried to dodge the spits. The shields couldn't hold back the acid because it wasn't kinetic energy, which meant the Mako was taking direct damage. Ragan pulls in the mini-gun turret and starts reloading it with a cyro rounds. Tali starts covering Ragan by using the machine guns. Wrex uses the guns to repel the workers and the soldiers coming near the team. With the final shot from the Mako's cannon the last Rachni feel, no more came for now. The team got out of the tank and walked over to the person in charge, was a woman in dark greyish-blue armor.

The woman in charge gave John and Ragan a sharp salute. "First Lieutenant Durand, sires! Third Brigade, 14th Infantry Regiment, and damned glad to see you."

"At ease, we're just glad to help," John then looked at the soldiers Durand was commanding them. "Status."

Durand sighed, "Bad, those things really got us bad. We were dropped here for a scouting mission, for some pirate activity in this cluster, a few months back. They dropped supplies every couple weeks. For a time, we didn't see anything more dangerous than lichen. Then yesterday, these animals showed up out of nowhere, only we fifteen are left out of the ninety men that were here at first."

"We have the Normandy, we could bombard them from orbit," Laira said.

Durand shook her head. "No good, they're too deep underground. Pluse when they surface, they're near our position, you bombard them and you take us out too."

"They're not animals; they are a sentient species called the Rachni," John said.

"Never heard of them, then again I'm not sure I care…"

"You will care because this idiot," Ragan points at John, "released the fucking queen on Noveria. I'm taking in charge of this mission and we are going to kill this motherfuckers once and for all. What this man did was repeat history. Now the Krogan Rebellions will happen again, if that thing doesn't die."

Durand looked at John, "You did what?! Never mind. What we saw was a probe, our seismic sensors are picking a crap ton more on their way up, we've got five minutes tops. We might be able to hold them off Sergeant, if we were at the peak, but that's not possible."

John looked at Ragan and shook his head. "You're the fucking goddamn reason why the rachni are released. GET BACK TO THE NORMANDY, NOW COMMANDER! I'm taking this mission over. We can't have you sparing that creature," John looked around the camp. "GO, NOW!" John walked back to the tank and Tali followed him. But John stops right about half way and turns back around.

"You know what, you are jeopardizing this mission. I'm higher rank than you are, so I suggest you get out of my way or I will kill you. NOW LEAVE OR BE KILLED," John ordered Ragan, who saluted him. John then looked around the camp and Durand was right. This place was a mess. Only a few bunkers that were still intact, the rest was either bashed up or melted by the Rachni's acid. Next he saw two rocket turrets that could help, if it had some power. The Mako could power it, but that would mean his team couldn't use the tank, but it was a risk he'd have to take. "Do what you can to secure your position. We'll get your defenses up and running."

Durand gave a sharp salute. "Sir!" John went into the Mako and plugged the tank into the turrets, just in time too, as they heard a screech of the Rachni. "Here they come! Stand your ground!" The first batch of Rachni came out of the nests only to be blasted by one of the turrets. John and Liara both used singularity field to pick up the Rachni. Wrex show them down with a warp field. Durand and her men shot the soldiers as they came close. Ragan and Tali quickly got the Durand's team and covered them. So far the Rachni couldn't even get close to the battle-scarred encampment.

Then it was quiet, but everyone was on edge, the Rachni had stopped coming. Then they heard a scream from the west, the squard went ot the source of the scream, it was one of Durand's men, impaled by the Rachni's tendrils. More Rachni came out of the nest, they were flanking them and the turrets couldn't swerve over the support of them. John threw some grenades to the approaching hoard, Liara used her singularity field to lift more of the Rachni and took them down with a warp field. Wrex rammed the rachni, one of them tried to impale but the Krogan grabbed the tendril and swung it against another Rachni, he then blasted them with carnage blast. Ragan shot a Rachni soldier that jumped in the air and was about to get Wrex. The comm opened.

"Lieutenant Durand, they're flanking us from the right," one of her men said. They then heard more screeching coming their way. They were surrounded by the insects, but they fought on, however they would eventually become very tired while the Rachni kept coming. John and Liara used their throw fields to push back the Rachni, but dropped down on the knees, they had never been as tired as they were now. Even Wrex and Tali were slowing down, something need to change quickly or else they were done. Ragan then was impaled in the leg by one of the Rachni's tendrils and then thrown over the team. More rockets blasted the Rachni but not from the rocket turrets, but from the Normandy's second Mako. The tide was turning, as the rachni were being devastated, the insects knowing they were losing, they retreated.

"Brother, you okay," Jane's voice was heard. She then saw Ragan on the ground not breathing. She went to go check on him. Ragan was dead or so she thought when a sudden gasp came from him. "You're a sight of sore eyes."

Ash, Kaiden, and Garrus joined them; the Quarian ran up to and hugged John tightly. Apparently the rest of the team were worried about them and came down to help, help them were thankful for having. "I'm okay, Rookie, just tired." The celebrations were cut short when Durand ran up to the team, looking very nervous. "What is it Lieutenant?"

"We got movement down underground, and it's huge. If we don't do something we'll have a big fight on our hands."

"They can't be coming from nowhere; do you know where their nest is," Kaiden helped Jane get Ragan to the Mako.

"UAV said a hollow space five hundred meters under the surface. I would go but my people aren't in any condition for a clearing operation."

"We can go and handle it for you, can you rig some explosives," John looked at Ragan, who nodded. "Garrus, get him to the Normandy."

"On it," Garrus then contacted the Normandy to pick up the Mako. As the Normandy came up and picked them up the Mako, Ragan throw a few grenades towards John.

"Use this cyro grenades. They have armor and cyro does better damage than fire," Ragan was panting and trying to get ready for extraction.

"We'll see what we can do, Commander. I hope the Sergeant's leg is not broken," Durand said.


	42. Chapter 30: Frenzy of the Rachni part 2

Chapter 30: Frenzy of the Rachni part 2

Two men were carrying a huge silver sylinder to the Mako, it was explosives that Lieutenant Durand created from resources that hadn't been wrecked by the Rachni's assault. When the men got close to the Mako, one of them almost tripped and dropped the explosives, before they had recovered quickly.

"Damn," one of them said. He looks at the person that tripped and shakes his head. "Don't do that." Must have been Austrian.

"You idiots, be careful! You almost blew us us," Durand said.

"Yes ma'am," one of them said. They made it inside the Mako and safely lowered the device on the floor of the tank and secured it tightly in place. The two men took their places in the back seats of the Mako, ready for the trip. Durand went over to John's team and gave the commander a sharp saulte.

"Explosive secured, Commander. Washington and Lafayette are on standby to support you." John nodded and faced his team, who all stood at attention ready for action. Garrus was still at the Normandy with Ragan because of what happened.

"What's the game plan, John," Kaiden asked.

"We go and destroy the Rachni's base, it should be lightly guarded when the bugs come out here," John said. "The team remaining will stay here and support Durand's team. Garrus will be back soon and you can use the second Mako to the rocket turrets. Also, feel free to use the weapons that the Mako has for the hell of it." John chose Tali, for when there was tech problems with the explosive and Ash for extra fire power. The second team would be led by Kaiden, consist of Liara, Garrus - when he returns- and Wrex, giving Durand's team som biotic and sniper support while Jane was going to be protecting the tank. When the plan was set, John and team went to the Mako, and drove to the location of the UAV's read out. The readout pointed to an old abandoned mine, perfect place for the Rachni to have the base, large enough for Rachni to create their nests and strong enough to protect the nests. However it wasn't as easy as they thought as the mine was defended heavily by Rachni soldiers, the soldiers greeted the Mako with spits of acid. The Mako dodged the acid, while making sure the explosives they had on board didn't explode permaturely. Ash mowed them soldiers down with the machine guns while Washington quickly got on the mini-gun turret and Tali was on the main gun.

After a while the opening was cleared, while Washington and Lafayette got out the bomb, the team looked for any more Rachni. They went inside, with the team taking point guarding Durand's men. The inside of the mine was wet and dark, full of abandoned tools and boxes. The comm beeped. Sounds of battle could be heard, along with screeches of the Rachni.

"John, we've made contact with the Rachni, what's your status," Kaiden asked.

"We're inside the next, do all you can to keep the main force distracted, while we set up the bomb," John said.

"Okay, but hurry the Rachni came out in force and the turrets are not doing anything," the comm closed. They headed down the entrance tunnel to reach the first room. WHen they reached the first room, there were some holes on the far wall, mostly like tunnels the Rachni created to enter the base in the first place. The team stayed on guard, although they had yet to meet the insects, it didn't mean they could relax. They were on their home turf, and unlike them could fight in crowded areas with no problems. They entered the next room and found more Rachni holes, eight to be the exact around the main room. Washington and Lafayette set the bomb down and in the center of the main chamber, when the element zero based explosions goes off it'll hit all of the nest at the same time, wiping out the colony. As the two men was about to prepare it, they heard loud screeches that echoed the nests, they were coming.

"Can you two fight," John asked. Washington and Lafayette nodded; they brought out their weapons as the screeches got louder. The team went back to back, watching each tunnel, until the soulds came from their right, the tunnels. The rachni came out in force, form different tunnels they were too many. JOhn raised them up with a lift field while Durand's soldiers fired at the insects. Ashley and Tali knocked back the soldiers with a double carnage to push them back. More Rachni soldiers came out and threatened to overwhelm the team, John threw some grenades, the ones that Ragan gave him, into the tunnels to wipe out the approaching insects. One of them spit out acid.

"Keelah," Tali yelled in surprise. John blasted the Rachni with a warp field and attended as he pulled her to cover. John analyzed his girlfriend's suit, the acid grazed her arm and was eating on her skin. JOhn grabbed some water from the floor and washed the acid off.

"You okay," he asked.

"Yah, I just didn't expect its spit to go through my shields," Tali said. "My suit is sealing inself off, I should be fine." John nodded and joined back to the fight, just in time as a bigger Rachni decided to join the fray and its first act was to block back Washington, Lafayette, and Ash back with biotics. Wrex had told John about that Rachni, they were much dangerous Rachni brood warriors. They are the 'elder males' of the hive that usually mate with the queen. According to historical information, it is said that they only attack when the hive is particularly strained for warriors, which didn't seem strained at the moment. John's come opened.

"John, whatever you going to do, do it and hurry," Garrus said. "The Rachni had all of a sudden retreated back to their nest, they're on to you!"

"Shit, just what we need..." John glowed blue and used his singularity field, raising it up, but that didn't stop the brood warrior from firing warp fields at the team like crazy. The team went to cover; this battle was taking too long. Tali recovered and helped John out with firing on the brood warrior, they were a lot tougher than the soldiers, but when Ash and Durand's men recovered they joined the fir fight. The brood warrior fell with a screech, which announced the colony of John and the team's existence. "Activate the explosive, so we can get out of here." Washington and Tali nodded and worked on arming the device, as the screeches were getting louder.

"John, it's done," Tali said. John nodded and ordered everyone to leave; the team ran out of the nest, fighting the soldiers along the way. Until they reached the entrance, before they could get out, they heard a scream. John looked back and saw a soldier tendril wrapped around Tali's arms and legs, slowly pulling her to the swarm. Tali tried to break free and grab her shot gun but was too far from it and couldn't break free. "John, help!" JOhn glowed blue and sent out throw fields against the Rachni soldier, but it wouldn't shake the insect loose.

"Skipper," Ash threw her assault rifle to John; the spectre caught it and aimed for the soldier.

"Rookie, duck!" Tali hit the floor as John sprayed the Rachni full of bullets, careful not to accidentally hit the Quarian. The Rachni soldier feel down with a screech and John went to help Tali, they needed to get out quickly the timer was almost to zero. The team reached the outside and headed for the make, just as an explosion sounded off destroying the next along with the Rachni. The mission was a success, but JOhn didn't fell right, something about the Rachni didn't sit well with him. The Mako went back to the camp site, to find Lieutenant and the Normandy team waiting on them, looking exhausted.

"Everyone okay, casualties," John asked.

Durand sighed. "A couple... but holy Hell, sir," she said. "I didn't think we were going to get through, talk about a near run." She shook her head. "Are you okay, sir?"

"Yeah, no casualties on my part."

"At least we made it. Commander, could you do us a favor? Three days ago, one of our listening posts went offline, we were going to investigate, but the bugts had other plans." John looked at her, a listening post goes offline three days ago and Durand's team is attack just before checking on it. This reeked of foul play. "I don't know if it was a pirate raid, but if you could check on them."

"We'll check on them, this may shed some light on our Rachni problem. And I'm pissed off. When I'm pissed off, I shoot things. I'll solve the problem with violence," John said. "if you want, we can take you off planet and to the Citadel."

Durand shook her head. "No think you, Commander. You've done enough for us," she said. "We have an intact beacon, so we should be able to get a ship to help us, you saved our asses, thank you." Joh nodded and the team went back to the Normandy. John had Pressly run the co-ordinates on the galaxy map to reveal the location of the listening post.

"Huh, it looks like it's in the next system," Pressly said.

Ragan leaned forward in his seat and started typing on the console. He then frowned. "The listening post shutting down and Rachni appearing within days of each other, plus the system is right next to each other," Ragan said. "Foul play indeed... And you said this Rachni had biotics?"

"Yeah, why," John asked.

"Wrex told me that some of the Rachni during the Rachni Wars never used biotics and the brood warriors couldn't use biotics. So this isn't from the the Queen on Noveria. Makes you wonder though, who created them?"

"I don't know. Joer get us to this sector, I think our Rachni plot just thickened."

"Aye, aye, Commander," Joker said. John walks away from the bridge and to the Galaxy map.


	43. Chapter 30: Frenzy of the Rachni part 3

Chapter 30: Frenzy of the Rachni part 3

After landing on Altahe, the Mako heads to the coordinates to the south given by Durand. When they got to the coordinates, they found an Alliance base surrounded by four Rachni nests and Rachni soldiers patrolling the base. "That's a lot of them," Garrus said with wide eyes.

"What's the plan, John," Tali asked.

"We play it safe, Garrus you're ready," the Turian activated the main gun and entered sniper mode, as John drove the Mako to a safe vantage point. Garrus zoomed in on the first soldier and fired the cannon. The blast gotten their attention and went to attack the team. Kaiden mowed them down with the machine guns and Garrus took down the approaching soldiers with the main guns. The path was clear for them to enter, John drove up to the base and parked the Mako. The Garrus and Jane stayed behind while the Tali, Kaiden, and John went in the base.

When the squad enters the underground base, they are met with a dead solider. It looked like Duran was right to worry about the other scouting team. Kaiden went to check the corpse, when he turns the body over, his face twisted into a frown. "Died from acid burns, you can hardly tell who this guy is anymore." Kaiden shook his head. "Horrible, no one should die like this."

"We can't help him now, let's just purge the base of the Rachni." The team went to the first room, only to be stopped by a defense barrier, mostly set up by the soldier, before he died. Kaiden went to a terminal and lowered the barrier so they could come in farther. The main room held seven Rachni workers and two Rachni Soldiers. The workers weren't too dangerous, however the team had to be careful as they were basically walking poison bombs. The workers crawled up to the team, but one shot killed them instantly. The two Rachni soldiers charged at them, but they were out-numbered which made them easier to kill. After the rachni was killed, the team search for clues, Kaiden checked the terminal while Tali started scanning the environment with her omni-tool.

"Shepard, I found something," John and Tali met up with Kaiden.

"What's up," John knew something must be important.

"The listening post received a supply run two days ago."

"One day before communications were cut off, Kaiden. What of this supply ship? Do we know anything about it?"

Kaiden checked more of the data. "Seems these things are drones, dispatched at irregular intervals for despots. Likely to reduce tracking. Got it, Argos Rho, that's where the ship came from."

John nodded. "Let's end this." Kaiden downloaded the data and sent it to Ragan. The team let the base. The Normandy travels to the Gorgon system in the Argos Rho cluster and the ream boards an unidentified space facility. The entryway was cleared of enemies, or of anything for that matter and went on, the team treaded carefully with such narrow space, it was going to be hard to fight. As they made it to the main hold, they could hear screeches of Rachni, but they didn't know where they were going to come out. The team turned the corner and alerted a Rachni worker, the worker scuttled towards the tema and Garrus shot at it. The gunshots alerated the rest of the nest and attack, but because of the boxes the team couldn't get a clear shot. A worker approached behind them and exploded releasing some toxic residue.

"Good thing Tali uploaded toxic mod to our armor, or else that would have been nasty," Garrus said.

"Thanks for that Garrus," Tali looked at him and smiled.

"Remind me, to take you out for dinner," John said. A soldier came around the corner and wrapped him in its tendrils. "SHIT!" John tried to get out of it, but the tendrils were stronger than the Spectre thought. As he struggled, the solider was preparing its other tendril to strike at John, but then a gun shot was sounded and the Rachni dropped dead. Tali went over to him and helped him out of the embrace of the dead Rachni. "Thanks."

"No problem, John." The squad went to the front of the ship and saw a terminals. Tali went to find information while John and Garrus were on the lookout. When it was all clear, Tali called John and Garrus over. The data logs of a Major Elena Flore and it was quite illuminating. The first long entry describes that the station was operation. The log says that they were addking the barracks and stocking munitions. Flores says that they will have room for two reinforced platoons of Cerberus Commandos. Ragan was right about this but John doubted it for a little while until now. The second entry described a package arriving and how those were supposed to be different. Something about developing in proximity to the master control unit. Flores documents a plan to 'test' the Rachni by unleashing them on some local pirates. The third entry describes that the Rachni escaped, accessing the freighters and setting them to random destinations. It goes on to tell how Cerberus personnel 'threated them like animals. And how they should have treated them like POWs." Flores tells someone called the General, to 'screw the Rachni' and destroy the station.

John frowned. "Cerberus… shit…" He opens his comm link to Ragan. "Ragan, John here. It wasn't the Queen from Noveria. But Cerberus was involved."

"Copy that. Give me the download and I'll give this to Alliance High Command and the Council. They will need this to narrow down the search for hunting Cerberus. Time for a manhunt," Tali sends the data to him and he looks at it. "Fuck, this doesn't tell us anything but the Rachni escaped. Dammit. Dead end on that part." He starts typing and sends the data to Hackett. "Hackett just got the information. Ragan out." The comm link closes.

"Are humans always this… suicidal," Garrus asked.

Tali shook her head. "I don't think so, but Cerberus it seems to be." The team hoped that with the data in Alliance hands, that maybe they'll get serious with Cerberus. Next to the terminal was detonations device that Flores' people were going to use against the Rachni, before the insects wiped them out. Tali set the device and the timer started, she then sent the schematics to Ragan before the team ran back to the Normandy quickly. As they were making their way to the entrance, they were blocked by Rachni.

"Shit, we don't need this!" The Rachni attacked and the team fought them off. John lifted them up with a singularity field and Tali pushed them back with her combat drone. Garrus gunned them down with his Assault rifle. More and more Rachni came out, and attacked the squad. Tali sabotaged a canister near the Rachni and froze them in their tracks. Garrus shattered them. "Rookie time!"

"Fifty seconds left," John nodded and froze the rachni with stasis field. The team made it to the entrance and Tali closed the door behind them and locked it. As the team was leaving, the Rachni soldier slammed the door again and again until it was slammed open.

"Shit! Go, go," John ordered as the team made it on the Normandy. John ran to the cockpit. "Joker, get us the Hell out of here!" Joker worked his fingers and the engines came alive, and the Normandy racedaway just as the Rachni ship blew up. John breathed a sigh of relief.

"Cutting it kind of close don't you think," Joker asked. Ragan looked at him and placed his hand on his right temple.

"Heh, sorry," John said. As he went to go back and make his report to Hackett, a beep came from his omni-tool. "A message?" The spectre opened his comm and a man spoke up.

"Greetings Commander Shepard, I represent a party interested in obtaining information on Cerberus activates."

John frowned. "Who?"

"The Shadow Broker…" Joker looked back in his chair and Ragan gulped. At that time John wasn't surprised. Everyone knew about the Shadow Broker, the unknown individual at the head of an expansive organization which trades in information, always selling to the highest bidder. The Shadow Broker was also the reason why Tali came to the Citadel, because of the data file she had proving Saren Arterius a traitor, which also put her in danger. "Your friend, Admiral Kohoku contacted us for information on any Cerberus bases, in return for our information he would supply us with information on Cerberus."

"And you turned him into a target," John was angered at this.

"He knew the implications of having such information, we simply showed him the right way," the man said. "Unfortunately, he died before we could get the data, but then we heard about you fighting Cerberus…"

"And you want the data from me? We'll you can forget it, this goes to the Alliance," John then heard Ragan start typing on a terminal to find out where the call is coming from.

"Be reasonable, Commander. The Alliance is just going to file the information away in some archives. But it will come out eventually, no secret stays hidden for long, and we will get it eventually, it might as well be now. Also we are prepared to compensate you well."

"No way, I'm not traitor like the man I'm trying to find."

The man sighed. "That is unfortunate, Commander. The Shadow Broker will remember this…" he said. The comm shut off and Joker looked at John.

"Uh, John, should we be worried about that," the pilot asked. Ragan laughed.

"I couldn't get a track on him. Whoever this Shadow Broker is, he is damn good. I wouldn't worry about it though."

John frowned. "I don't know…" The Spectre had a sinking feeling that he just made a new enemy.


	44. Chapter 31: Mindoir part 1

Chapter 31: Mindoir part 1

John was in bed with Tali, staring at the ceiling, he couldn't sleep. He sighed and looked over to Tali who was sleeping peacefully in bed. The Spectre kissed her shoulder and got out of bed careful to not wake here. He put on his sweatpants and walked out to his locker, he opened the locker and took out a picture of his family; he always did this when it was that time of the year. Remembrance Day, a special day all survivors of that day marked on their calendars, a day to remember those that were killed on Mindoir. He sat down on the bench, just staring at the picture. He'd done this every year like a ritual. He didn't even notice his sister come up and sit beside him. '_What's the point of doing this, it's not like it's going to bring them back,_' he thought bitterly. But he kept looking at picture for what looked like a long while…

"I'm sure mom would be proud of us, same with dad," Jane's voice startled him. He jumped a little then looked at her. "I'm glad dad didn't die when the Batarians hit."

"How can I forget? I was there when dad was driving and got crushed by a drunk driver. We were six when he died. Mom married Gorudo Farron later on and our siblings got bigger. But that didn't last long. Only five months and the Batarians hit," John looked at the picture and started to cry. Jane places her hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay big bro. You made it this far. You got me and Ragan. And now you got Tali to look for and protect," Jane's word comforted John but it didn't work this time. "I know it was hard. Seeing Clare die in your girlfriend get killed. I just… I just wish Udina was trialed for making the Alliance delayed for his stupid 'research project' he order Anderson to do while the Batarians attacked. I want to kill him so badly."

John chuckled and gave a laugh, "Get in line, you're not the first and you're not the last one. But I remember what mom told us about revenge, 'Revenge will only dig two graves. One for the victim and the other for yourself. The only way to make it one grave is if some else does it for you.' Mom know the best."

"She did," Jane hugged John and looked at him. "You want to have revenge on Udina, then go for it. Just make sure that you warn me if C-Sec is coming after you." John laughed at that.

"John," John looked behind him and saw Tali approaching the twins.

"What you doing up, Rookie," Jane asked. Tali looked at her and shook her head.

"I should be asking you both that, you don't usually stay up this late – well John doesn't unless it deals with the Council or Hackett," she sat next to John, she then saw John about to put something in his pocket, but then he stopped. "What's that?"

"A picture of our family, three months before the attack," John solemnly said. Tali gripped his hand and leaned her head on his shoulders, her way of saying she was there for him. "Thank you."

Jane looked at the two lovebirds and sighed. "Have a nice night. I'm going to see Ragan. He might help me fall to sleep with his stories of crazy things our aunt told him." Jane then got up and left John and Tali.

"What was your family like," Tali asked.

John smiled a little, he hadn't talked about his family in years, maybe this is what he needed someone to talk to. "Close after my father died when me and Jane were six, I saw him get crushed by a drunk marine and at one time too close after mom married a man ten years later…"

**Thirteen years ago – Mindoir**

_Sixteen year old John was on his favorite hill in the backyard of his house, it was a place he came for peace and quiet, to be alone with his thoughts. And more importantly to get away from his family, especially today of all days… "Johnny, they're here," Kyoko said. Kyoko was full Japanese unlike John and Jane. John groaned, today the Farron family annual reunion, a day where his step-grandparents, his cousins, uncles and aunts come to trade embarrassing stories about each other, and especially about him and Jane. John got up and went to meet his family. He went inside the house, they were all here in the family room. Uncle Ciaus playing games with his cousins; he was always the kid-like of his uncles. Uncle Kai was on his omni-tool speaking to his boss like he always did, and Uncle Hato grabbing his omni-tool and telling him to relax._

_His step-grandmother and mother were talking about the Farron men, while his step-grandfather and stepdad were laughing, to people outside, this was a happy ordinary family, but to John it was a smother-fest. He loved his family dearly, and would die for any of them, but he wished he could take a break from them, be alone for a while but little did he know his wish come true in the worse way. His step-grandmother saw him and came up to him, then kissed his forehead._

_"Hey baby, how's my young man doing," she asked with a smile._

_"I'm fine, sobo, how was your trip?"_

_"Just fine, we would have been here sooner, if your grandfather wasn't so cheap."_

_"I was not being cheap, I call it being frugal," step-grandfather Buraisu said in mock offense. John met his cousins, from as young as Kyoko, to as old as he was. He spent a little more time with his family until he wanted to be alone, knowing his mother would never let him go he did the next best thing, he snuck out._

_"John, John, where are you," his mother asked. She looked for him and saw a note._

_'Atode anata o sanshō shite kudasai nanika o motte ita' - John_

_"Let me guess, he snuck out again," Gorudo said._

_Sakura sighed. "At least he left a note this time, should we get him?"_

_Gorduo shook his head. "Nah, he'll miss us and come home soon, just let him be. We'll just surprise him when he comes home." John walked down the road stretching his body, it was good to get out of the house. He went to the house of his best friend and girlfriend Emily 'Emi' Schwartz, as he came close he saw Emi in a grey tank top, cowboy boots and blue jean short shorts, she had a rake in her hand, no doubt her father was working her hard, the Schwartz family were farmers that worked for the local market, John had known Emi since they were five, also his little sister Kyoko was best friends with Talitha, same with Jane, and his two stepsisters, Serah and Clare. Talitha was on the yard playing with her dolls, she saw John and waved to him. John returned a wave._

_John gave a grin and sneaked up to Emi, he looked at Talitha and hushed her, Talitha nodded and covered her mouth. He came close and as he was about to make his move… "Johnathan Shepard, don't even try it," Emi said sternly._

_John sighed. "Party pooper, how did you do that?" Emi turned around and kissed John's lips. Her lips were his favorite part of her, soft and tender. Not at all like the tomboy she was._

_"One, you walk too loud and two I saw your reflection in the window," she pointed at the window and John snapped his fingers followed by a stomp. "What are you doing here?"_

_John groaned, "Family thing, was wearing on me…" Emi gave him a look and John put his hands up. "Don't get me wrong, I love them but this annual family reunion is getting a bit much."_

_"You're lucky, John, most would kill to have a family as close as yours," Emi said._

_John rolled his eyes. "Maybe…" He looked at Emi. "So I was wondering if you would like to come with me, I'm going to biotic training thing." Emi nodded and went inside to put her rake._

_"Can I come," Talitha asked._

_"You're too little," John looked at Talitha._

_"I am not," she pouted. She looked at her sister as she walked over to them. "Please Emi, I promise to be good."_

_"Not this time, Tal." Talitha lowered her head and was about to cry, but Emi picked her up and kissed her cheek. "How about I bring you something back?" Talitha looked at her and smiled. Emi and John walked down the road._

_"Pushover," John smirked._

_"Whatever, so have you made up your mind on joining the Alliance?"_

_"Maybe…" Emi frowned at that, it wasn't that she had anything against the Alliance, but she couldn't bear to see John getting hurt or worse. She cares for him too deeply for that to happen. But she knew why he was thinking about it, people weren't exactly kind to biotics unless they worked for the military. And with his real father died at the age of six, he wanted to make his father's legacy proud because his father was in the Alliance. John sighed. "I'm going to have to, mom and my stepdad just doesn't have the money to keep buying me the extra food, not to mention I'd be doing more good for them. You know how much they pay?"_

_"I know, but still if you do this, I'll miss you…" John blushed and kissed her cheeks._

_"Don't worry, I'll call you every day, give or take." Emi smiled. The couple went downtown Ios, unlike most of the area, there was a lot to do; it had the hustle and bustle of cities on Elysium, but had the laid-back atmosphere of a small town. Of course they had to keep their eyes open, after all quiet didn't mean safe. They turned the corner and saw a huge building with Alliance symbol, there were lots of people crowding around one part of the building, John and Emi went to check it out._

_"What's going on here? It's usually not crowed like this." The couple walked into the crowd and gotten to the front as a blue object was flying across the area. Two men in the Alliance training uniforms were glowing blue as the crowd watch; they were in the middle of a biotic sparring match. One man was dark-skinned in navy blue tank top and black shorts. The other was white skinned in navy blue shirt and black sweats. The white skinned man went first with a biotic force. The dark skinned man raised an arm and the force dissipated upon impact._

_"What happened," Emi was impressed._

_"The guy in the tank top just created a barrier, I heard that's not easy to do," John explained. The sparring match continued as things gotten intense, the white skinned man threw a warp field, while the dark skinned man went with a throw field and the two biotic fields collided in a flurry of a small explosions. The crowd looked on in awe, as the match continued._

_"Pretty."_

_"Yes pretty, but if one those hit you at full force, you're a gone."_

_Emi raised a brow, "Since when are you an expert?"_

_John blushed. "Since I accidentally punch a hole in the shed when I was practicing my powers…"_

**NOW**

Tali was sitting on the table listening to the story. "Mindoir sounded so nice."

John lowered his head. "It was as a kid I took a lot of things for granted, a little did I know it would cost me in the end…"

* * *

Sobo means grandmother in Japanese.

Atode anata o sanshō shite kudasai nanika o motte ita means Got to go somewhere, see you guys later in Japanese


	45. Chapter 31: Mindoir part 2

Chapter 39: Mindoir part 2

John went and gotten a cup of coffe, he wasn't going to be sleeping for the rest of the night. He offered Tali a drink but she had gotten herself some sterilized water and sat next to John. And the Spectre continued his story. It was strange to be telling this story after so many years but Tali had become important to him, he trusted her. "Seeing two advanced biotics in action, made me determined to practice more of my abilities," he said. "So much so I challenged one of them to sparring match."

Tali looked at him. "Really? And how did you do?"

John smiled. "Got my ass handed to me." Tali blinked at him and john chuckled at her expression. Then he had gotten serious. "Little did I know, the little tricks I saw, would end up saving my life…"

**Mindoir – Thirteen years ago**

_After the sparring match between the two biotics, the crowd had dispersed, moving on with their own business. John however wanted to learn more about his powers, and challenged one of them to a sparring match. The two men looked at each other and the white-skinned man came up and agree to John's challenge, much to Emi's worry. He introduced himself as Cliff, a biotic from Eden Prime, unlike his friend Kwame, a biotic from Earth, he was a lot skinnier. John and Cliff circle around each other looking for the best way to strike, John was happy about one thing he wasn't going to be underestimated, after all an inexperienced biotic was just as dangerous as an experienced one. John struck first, using the strongest biotic force he could muster, but Cliff stood their blocking his blasts with his barrier. It was Cliff's turn and blew him back with a small throw field and landed on the ground. John got up and charged the man._

_"John, watch out!" Cliff stood ready, but John surprises the man by side stepping and gave a biotic kick to his arm. Cliff blocks it and pushes him back, and gave an impressed smirk._

_"Not bad, kid. Using your biotics to increase the power of your blows," he said. "That technique is not exactly rookie stuff, who taught you?"_

_John smirked. "Self-taught, since I was twelve." Cliff gave a whistle and made a gesture that said bring it on. John used a biotic throw, the power was great, but the control was poor as it missed Cliff entirely and hit the floor. John fired off throw fields rapidly, but the soldier just dodged gracefully, until Cliff disappeared. John blinked in surprised and looked around for the soldier._

_"John, behind you," Emi said. John looked back alarmed._

_"Too late," Cliff said. A wave of biotic energy blows him backwards and John landed on his back. Emi ran to him, worried John had gotten hurt _

_"Not bad, kid. You might have what it takes to join the Alliance," Kwane said. "After a little more training of course. But that won't be a problem." All of a sudden, they heard clapping, John and Emi looked around and saw a crowd of people around them clapping, John's match with the Alliance soldier had drawn in a huge crowd. John blushed and rubbed his head sheepishly, however the feeling of accomplishment soon ended when they heard sirens blaring in the air._

_"WARNING, UNIDENTIFIED SHIPS HAVE BREACHED ORBIT, THEY ARE CONSIDERED HOSTILE," the VI said. "ALL CIVILIANS TO THE SAFE HOUSES. REPEAT: ALL CIVILIANS TO THE SAFE HOUSES." The crowd had gotten nervous and panicked while Cliff and Kwame was trying to calm them down. John looked around and saw Emi running the way they came, John ran and grabbed her hand._

_Wait, Emi," John said._

_"I have to make sure my family is safe, let go!" John pulled her towards her and she looked in his eyes._

_"It's too dangerous… I'll go," John said._

_"But…"_

_"Emi, think, I have biotic powers, you don't. I can get there safely and check on our families okay." Emi reluctantly nodded._

_"Call me as soon you make it to the safe house," she said softly. John kissed Emi deeply on the lip and ran to their family. Emi looked on and went back to the soldiers to go to the safe house. While John was running to their houses, he saw the devastation first hand, burning houses and bodies in the streets._

_"Shit they did this much damage already," he asked. He then heard gunshots and went to hide, he looked over cover and saw men and women on their knees and they had so much fear in their eyes. He then saw a young man no older than himself, and a fresh bullet wound in the head, also his assailant. Batarians. Everyone knew how much they hated Humans and Humans hated them too, but unlike the Batarians, Humans didn't actively seek a fight. He looked at the Batarian in grey and green armor; he was smiling at his brutality, which made John sick to his stomach. He was about to turn and go another way, he hated to leave those people to their fate, but he had his own family he was worried about and he had a promise to keep._

_"You monster, he was just a child… he never done anything to you," said one of the angry women. The Batarians hit the woman in the mouth with the butt of her gun for her trouble, John looked back as he saw the Batarians gather around and kicked her while she screamed in pain. The men and women could only look away as they saw the brave woman being beaten to an inch of her life._

_"You know what the most annoying thing about you apes is," the Batarians asked menacingly. "You never seem to know your place, your kind barely made it off that rock you call a planet for a decade, your kind barely pushed back the Turians on that Shanxi place, and you think the galaxy is yours to take…" The Batairans pointed his gun at the woman. "You need to learn you place…" The woman closed her eyes with tears flowing down her face, John felt conflicted, if he stopped to help them there would be a chance his family and Emi's family would not make it, but he didn't want to leave those people to their fate. He had to make a choice…_

_"Damn it…," John said running back. Before the Batarian could pull the trigger, a gunshot was heard and the Batarians fell on the ground as his body was in flames. John flet a force that pushed him off his feet as a mysterious man came up and starts killing the Batarians._

_"FUCK YOU BLINKS," the man yelled as he took one of them and threw him to a nearby window and let the glass cut the head off. The Batarians then focus their attention form the downed woman to the man as he used his strongest biotic force he could muster. The Batarians began to open fire, but quickly grabs one and uses him as flesh shield. John was impressed and decided to help the man._

_John quickly made his way to the man and started attacking Batarians with biotic powers. The Batarians then started to open fire and John quickly ducked behind a rock he was close to, John was trapped without a gun he couldn't face them on even grounds. Also the Batarians was breaking down his neck. "Guess I'll improvise…"_

_John looked over cover and saw the closest Batarians and saw a canister near him, he bioticly lifted the canister. It took all his concentration to keep the canister stable, as he didn't have much practive manipulating objects, it would have to do. "Hey, blink." John got out of cover and the Batarian aimed for him but he got hit by the biotic charged canister. The other Batarians opened fired on the boy but John tossed the canister at the aliens while getting hit in the arm with a stray bullet. One of the bullets struck the canister and exploded, wiping out the batarians._

_"Take that…," John said while falling to the ground holding his arm. The people ran over to thank the man and John and patching him up. However, John couldn't rest as he saw explosions coming from the location of John's neighborhood. "No…," he said in horror._

_He picked up a rifle from one of the dead Batarians and ran towards the location of the smoke, his arm hurt by he couldn't stop. He went to Emi's house first and saw her father and mother in a puddle of blood, he checked their pulses; they were gone. He looked for Talitha, but couldn't find any sign of her, he saw the house collapsed from the orbit strike, if Talitha was there, she either died from the explosion or the house. He clenched his fist, how could he look at Emi in the eyes and tell her he failed. "I'm sorry…"_

_He ran to his house and to his horror it was destroyed, he ran to the house only to find his step-grandparents, his uncles and cousins dead, they all had burn marks on their bodies from the explosions. He then heard gunshots and ran to the location of the sound, where he got there his eyes went wide with horror as his mother and stepfather gunned down in front of him. "MAMA, DAD!" He glared at his family's assailants laughing and gloating at their deaths, he gripped the rifle and charged the Batarians full of anger and sadness if he was going to die, he was going to die making sure the Batarians paid. "DIE YOU FUCKING BLINKS!"_

**NOW**

Tali looked on as he finished the story, his face twisted with great pain, as tears ran down his face. Now the Quarians felt horrible, she had wanted to know about his past but she had also made him relive that day. "I fought them until I had nothing left, by the time an Alliance fleet led by Anderson finally came I was close to bleeding out," John said sadly.

"What happened to Emi? You said she went to the safe house?"

"Never made it… the Batarians killed her when they did an orbit strike." He then sighed. "This picture is the only thing from life I have left…"

"John…," Tali said sadly as she gripped his hand.

"Every night from then on I had nightmares of that day… my friends and family all blaming me for failing to save them. When Anderson took me in, but I was damaged goods, my grades were falling, I had gotten into fights, acted out." He pointed to his black hair. "I dyed my hair to black instead of having brown; to change myself… I even tried to end my life…"

"Keelah…," Tali gasped. She tighten her grip, she didn't want to hear he had almost committed suicide.

"Then Anderson, talked to me, got me help… I was getting better… and for that I decided to join the Alliance for saving my life. So now you know, does that change anything about how you feel about me?" Tali looked at him, she suddenly realized why he said he hated to be pitied, it was condescending to him; it had only reinforced feeling of self-hatred for letting his friends and family die. It was just like when someone 'pitied' Quarians, it had only served to make them feel weak. He and Ragan didn't like to be pitied and now she understood. They both went through a living Hell.

"No, I love you John Ryu Shepard, faults and all, I'll never abandon you," Tali said hugging him. John smiled.

"Thank you, Rookie…"


	46. Chapter 32: Bring down the Sky part 1

Chapter 32: Bring down the Sky part 1

The team was on the lower deck watching a biotic sparring match between Wrex, Liara, Kaiden, and John. It was John's idea of keeping biotics fresh while they were waiting for a lead from the council and a way to break boredom. John teamed up with Kaiden, while Liara teamed up with Wrex, and the match started when Ragan came lifted his arm and moved it down. Wrex threw a warp field at John but Kiadne moved in front and blocked it with a barrier. John used that time to use a throw field on the Korgan, and blew him back. But he was caught by Liara. The match was drawing an audience, as everyone, that was not duty was stopping to take a look.

"Keelah…," Tali said in complete awe. She knew how dangerous biotics could be in battle, but seeing it couldn't but think the light works beautiful, especially when she looked at John. Her thoughts were interrupted when the ship violently shook and everyone were thrown to the ground. Ragan was trying to get back to his wheelchair but it was coming for him. Garrus quickly grabs it and lifts it above the ground. When the shaking stopped, everyone got off the ground, Garrus got Ragan back in the wheelchair.

"What the hell was that," Ash looked at John and Ragan. Ragan got on the comm link.

"Joker, what's with the turbulence?"

"It's not my fault, an asteroid almost careened into us, it took all I had to evade it… Oh shit...," Joker then looked at the terminal and looks back.

"What is it?"

"Emergency SOS, coming from that asteroid that we nearly got hit. You may want to see this, John."

"Got it." Ragan cut the comm link and looked at the crew. "Everyone to your stations and stand by for orders," John ordered them. Ragan headed to the elevator. The crew nodded and dispersed from the lower deck. John went up to the cockpit and met with Joker and Ragan. "Patch it through."

"Geia sas? Geia sas? Boreí kápoios na me akoúsete," woman asked. Joker opened the comm link while Ragan was placed a translator on the Greek words. "Hello? Hello? Can anyone here me," the Greek words changed to English.

"This is Commander John Shepard of the SSV Normandy SR-1, we can here you. Loud and clear."

The woman sighs a breath of relief. "Oh thank God, I have to hurry before they catch on to me… Listen to me; we're all going to die, if you don't stop this asteroid from colliding with Terra Nova."

John, Joker and Ragan looked at each other; they couldn't believe what this woman was asking on them. "Excuse me, but how do you expect us to stop the asteroid," Ragan was confused. "Unless there is something that is powering it then we can do that…" There was static for a while. "Ma'am?"

"There are three fusion torches that are propelling the asteroid, if you can disable the…" They heard thud. "Oh God, they're here, please stop this, you have four hours…" The comm cut off.

"What the hell was that," Joker asked.

"Trouble…," Ragan looks at John.

The Mako dropped out of the sky, ready to stop the asteroid. For this mission, John brought Tali, because of her technical experise, and Garrus for sniper support. As it landed the tank's computer system showed them they were close to the first fusion torch. As the team got near, they were hit hard from the side.

"What was that," John asked.

"Turrets on our left," Tali said while Garrus activated the Mako's guns and entered sniper mode and blasted the turrets to pieces. Then the tank was hit again this time from the back and right. Garrus swerved the gun around as the turrets fired more missiles, the Turian shot them from the air and then focused on the turrets. With the last turret down, the team had a clear road to the fusion torch. Once inside, Tali went to work on the first torch, while Garrus and John stood guard, the loud whirl that the team had heard since being inside ceased.

"The first torch is offline, John," Tali walking towards them.

"Good job, Rookie, let's get to the next torch."

"Updating your nav-point then," Ragan' said over the earpiece.

The team mead their way downstairs, disabling the first torch had been pretty easy, as little too easy to Tali.

"I'm surprised we haven't been met with much resistance," she said. They then heard the clicking of guns. "Bosh'tet!" The sound of gunfire made them scatter to cover; the Quarian looked over cover and saw their enemies. The team were surrounded by four-eyed aliens and fish-like dogs, Batarians and Varren.

"Blinks," John growled. Tali looked at the Spectre, John's biotics were flaring up, tell-tell sign of John being upset, but John was glowing a brilliant blue something she's never seen before. Her lover looked like a different person as rage twisted his features. He jumped out of cover.

"John wait!" The Batarians let loose of their Varren, and the fish-dogs charged. One of them lunged at John but the Spectre just smashed the fish-dog with his shotgun hard and blasted it pointblank in the head. John then glowed blue and lifted the rest up with a singularity field and shut them down with a warp field. The Batarians opened fired on the Spectre, who was charging in recklessly. Tali couldn't look away as John devastated the Batarians. The fight was finished quickly and the Spectre looked back at gaurr and Tali. His armor smeared with blood of his enemies and his eyes cold and full of rage, not focused and disciplined as usual. He was terror incarnate, Tali couldn't look at him, for the first time John scared her. She looked at Garrus, he must have had the same feeling also, she had never seen a paler turian.

A groan snapped them out of their stupor, and looked at the ground. Surprisingly one of the Batarians was still alive. John went over to the Batarian with his gun ready for the kill. Garrus spoke up. "Uh… S… Shepard, maybe w… we should get info from him," he was trying to contain his fear.

John looked at Garrus and then back at the Batarian. He then picked up the Batarian by the neck and slammed him against the wall hard, his hard gaze never leaving the four-eye alien. "Talk, you FUCKING blink," he said coldly as he grasped the alien's neck more tightly.

"Screw you, ape," the Batarian spit in John's face, Tali had to admit the Batarian was either brace or stupid to doing that. Turns out he was stupid, as John extended two fingers and charged them biotic energy. '_No, he's not going to…,_" Tali was in complete horror. Without hesitation, John dug his fingers into the one of the Batarian's eyes. She felt sick as her stomach as she heard the Batarian scream in agony. His arm dripped with black blood, John looked at it with a sickening fascinations.

"So the blood of you blinks is black, how fitting…"

"Fuck you, ape…" He was trying to keep a brave face, but Tali and Garrus knew the truth, he was scared. For years his kind used brutal tactics to bring feat to Humans, but to see it reversed on him by a Human was poetic justice, but to see John like this, it hurt Tali.

"Wrong answer, blink," John was cold. "You've got three eyes left, you better make it count." When the Batarian didn't give John an answer he wanted, John kept impaling his eyes one by one until he had only one left. "Last eye, last chance blink."

"Damn Human. you won't stop this. You and your kind will all burn, Balak will make sure of it," he said weakly. '_Must be the leader,_' Tali thought. She then saw a wicked smile spread across John's face, it chilled her to her core; he enjoyed torturing the Batarians, a race that took almost everything from him. John had always been ruthless, of that she knew, but the Spectre had never been sadistic person she was seeing now. Tali didn't know who the man was, because it wasn't the man who saved her in the Citadel wards, who she fell in love with, this was a stranger wearing John's skin.

"Balak huh? He can tell you of his failure after I seen him after you," John said coldly. The next thing Tali heard was a sicken sould of the Batarian's neck being snapped. He dropped to the ground, with his last eye starting blankly up in space. A terminal beeped and John went to answer it, a woman could be heard.

"I'm reading that one of the torches is offline. Was that you? Can you hear me?"

John spoke in the com; his voice was a little calmer now, much to Tali's relief. "Yeah, who are you?"

"My name is Kate Bowman. I'm an engineer. I was part of the team assigned to bring the asteroid to Terra Nova. We were attacked yesterday by Batarian extremists. My brother and I have hidden since they arrived. I think they know the torch went out."

John looked back at the dead Batarian. "We've met them."

"Do you know what they're planning?"

"Apparently, to wipe out Terra Nova, at least that's what I found out. I have someone on the Normandy trying to find out more but nothing so far," John said.

"What?! But we've done nothing to them. If this asteroid hits, millions of people will die!"

"That's fucking Goddamn Batarians for you," Ragan's image come up on John and Kate's omni-tool. "You have to remember this, Batarians believe that we are the ones that need to die because they thing we will bomb their asses. But really, the Batarians were the ones that caused it."

"They won't succeed you have my word, the blinks will die before that happens," John looked at Ragan.

"Good, I ran some background checks on this Balak. He is a general… And he was the one that attacked Mindoir when you were sixteen," Ragan then looked at John and shook his head. All Ragan did was put fuel to the fire and the fire was John.

"Thanks…" Sounds could be heard over the com… "They're near. I got to go. Good luck," Kate's image vanished. Ragan then starts typing on the terminal.

"Got some good news and bad news. If you get the second torch down, then the Batarians will be forced to come and investigate but the bad news is that if you go for the third one after that, Balak will have a trap ready. We're not talking about a gun trap, more like a bomb or orbit strike," Ragan then looks at the terminal. "So there you go, you're all doomed, and if that happens, then we will be having a big funeral."

"Shut up and keep getting me information, Sergeant," Ragan saluted him and the comm closed. "Move out," John walked out. Tali looked on sadly, the way John was now, it could only end in tragedy. '_Please don't let your anger cloud you, John. I love you too much to see you like this,_' she thought.


	47. Chapter 32: Bring down the Sky part 2

Chapter 32: Bring Down the Sky part 2

As the team leaves the fusion torch station, John was shot by a nervous man name Simon Atwell, much to Tali's dismay, however John was able to calm her saying his shields deflected the shot. After everything was cleared up, Simon tells them about the asteroid, as it turned out if it crashed into the plaet, not only will it destroy the colony and kill everyone on the surface but the devastation would effectively kill the planet.

"Spirits…"

"Keelah…"

Atwell shook his head. "I knew the Batarians were bad, but this… I didn't think they would go that far…"

"Believe it Atwell, they are Capable of this… The Council should have wiped them off the fucking map ages ago when Mindoir was attacked. I was one on the few survivors. The galaxy would have been better off, but no: our ambassador – which I call Udina an embarrassment instead of ambassador – didn't want that to happen because he 'feared' they would rage war. Guess what, they already have with the Humans and we have been trying to kill those blinks for so damn long we are at the point we are losing," John said coldly. Garrus and Tali looked at him shocked, as angry as the Spectre could be at his enemys, he never once approved of genocide. Garrus was talked about judging the Quarians while Tali couldn't judge them. And the Rachni being releashed. But this was different. Batarians are ten times worse than the Krogan and Rachni put together. Atwell looked visibly disturbed also, but he kept his mouth shut. "Where is the second torch?"

"North of here, between two mountain ranges. I'm guess your nav-points are jammed. And thank you, there are four million people down there, Shepard. I… my family. They live in Aronas. My kids and grand-kids. Nice communities, good schools…"

John held up his hand and his face, at least for a little while softened. "We'll stop them promise. Terra Nova won't become another Mindoir, I swear it. And then we will wipe this bastards off the map. They want to fight, they got it and now they will regret it. Just stay out of sight as best as you can. This facility is cleared for now but danger isn't over yet."

Atwell nodded, "Okay, I'll just lock the door when you leave. Before you go, that fusion torch is surround by blasting caps with proximity detectors, your tank will set them off, so you'll have to go on foot. Unless you have an EMP, even then you'll be careful. Just go slow and easy and you'll be fine." John nodded and the team left for the next fusion torch. The ride long and silent; John didn't say much other than the occasional order, the Batarians had done a good job of letting out John's dark side. A side that was scaring Tali more as time went on. The Mako made it to the second fusion torch and made short work on the turrets. Soon the Batarians started firing on the tank, Garrus entered in sniper mode and readied the main gun. One shot and the Batarian guards were down.

They got out and made the slow trek to the base, slowly after the signal Tali rigged up to make sure they didn't hit the caps. If their omni-tools started beeping, it meant they were too close and in danger of stepping on a cap. Thanks to Atwell's advice, they were able to make it to the other side. Garrus went over to the terminal and disabled the blasting caps making it safe to walk next time around. They went inside and were met with more Batarian troops and reprogrammed rocket drones, one of the many downsides of having archenemy was that they knew how your tech worked. John and the team went to cover. John threw a grenade at the Batarians as they shot at him while Garrus provided sniper support. Tali hacked one of the rocket drones and it attacked the Batarians and she sabotaged the rest of the drones. The battle ended, Tali came up to John and noticed his arm was dripping. She gasped, it was his blood.

"John, you're hurt," concerned was in her voice.

"I'm fine," Garrus looked at John. Garrus was getting a bad feeling about John.

"But…"

"I'm fine!" Tali was taken aback, he had never yelled at her before. "Time to shut down the torches."

Tali went to the terminal and started shutting down the torches, while working on torches Garrus spoke up.

"Boss, don't you think you were a little harsh? Tali was only worried about you?"

"No need, this is only a flesh wound, I can go on." John had no emotions. "I can't waste time, not while those fucking monster blinks are planning blowing Terra Nova back to the Stone Age." The whirling of the fusion torch quieted and then ened as Tali came to John and Garrus.

"Good job," Ragan's voice was heard over the comm link. "Now just one more unless…"

"Are you there? You've got to hurry. You've really pissed them off. Their leader's setting charges everywhere. I think he's going to blow this whole facility," Kate was heard over the earpiece. To John, it was never good.

John frowned. "So now that his plan isn't working he's planning a scorched earth approached, fucking coward. Understood." As he was turning the Spectre head a rough male voice.

"Get away from there ape," the hostile voice said. Static could be heard, then the sound of struggle taking place. Then there was silence, John looked on with a clenched fist, Bowman may have been killed by trying to help them. The come opened and voices could be heard.

"Aaron," Kate's voice was heard.

"Who's shutting down the torches," Ragan then got an idea and started working on hacking into the facility. The rough voice asked. Then a clicking sound could be hear. "You don't tell me, he will die!" Sounds of wimpering could be heard from the comm, it was Aaron. Kate was silent, possible to try to protect them, but John didn't couldn't take it anymore. But Ragan beat it to him.

"Name is Ragan Shepard, Spectre. You are under arrest for Terrorism. And the punishment is Automatic Death. IF my partern finds you, then you will die unless he is a Spectre as well."

"I won't ask you again," John eyes went wide, they couldn't hear Ragan. The comm must had been damaged by the struggle they heard. A shot and a scream could be heard, and then sounds of struggler, and then more silence. Then a voice.

"Find this problem and take care of it…" The comm was destroyed by Balak's foot.

"She protected us, even when she knew her brother would die… Balak has to be stopped," Tali then agreed with John.

"He will die, I promise that." The team left for the last torch, as the team drove Tali could see the Spectre's composure breaking more and more the pain, the anger, the sadness of that day was reaching it boiling point. The more the mission dragged on, the threating to overwhelmed him. She wanted to help him but John kept bringing a wall up between them, and if something didn't happen soon, he would do something he would regret. The Mako parked after the turrets were destroyed and the team went inside where they met with a Batarian's voice.

"Hold it right there,"

"Who's there," he demanded to know. Three Batarians turned the corner and John's eyes narrowed as he glowed blue, Tali and Garrus raised their weapons. "What do you want, blink?" The two Batarians behind them raised their weapons, but the leader raised his hand to lower the weapons.

"Listen, we can do this the hard way, or we can end it peacefully."

Ragan came on the comm and the Batarian looked at it. "Nice to see you before your death. You FUCKING BATARIANS ARE NOT EVEN PEACEFULL AND YOU WANT TO SAY YOU WANT TO END THIS PEACEFULLY. Look at what you did at Mindoir. Peace? I think you blinks don't know the meaning of it because you attacked Humans because Humans threatened you when you bombed our cities on Earth. London, Hong Kong, Athens, Saint Petersburg, Hollywood, Washington DC, and Toyko. Time for your death for Terrorism. And after that, we will make damn certain that you Batarians are dead. Khar'Shan will be destroyed and you can't do anything."

John smiled and looked at the Batarian. "I love the hard way."

"So I see," the Batarian sighed. "Look, I'm just doing my job. Hijacking this rock wasn't my idea. I signed on to make a little profit. A quick slave grab…" John clenched his fists and immediately raised his right arms and enveloped the Batarian in a biotic field. The two batarians raised their weapons but two auto turret shot them in the back of the head. Meanwhile John slammed the leader against walls and the ceiling, with thirteen pain fueling his blows.

"BASTARD! YOU BLINKS ARE LOWER THAN SCUM! A QUICK SLAVE GRAB?!" John held up the Batarian in mid-air, glowing an intense blue his hand started to close slowly and the Batarian started screaming in agony for the biotic field crushing him.

"Please mercy…"

"MERCY?! YOU DARE BEG FOR MERCY IN FRONT OF ME?! WHERE WAS THE MERCY WHEN YOU BLINKS GUNNED DOWN MY FAMILY IN FRONT OF ME?! WHERE WAS THE FUCKING MERCY WHEN YOU KILLED ALMOST EVERYONE ON MINDOIR?! TELL ME WHERE IT WAS AND I WILL SPARE YOU!" John slammed the Batarian on the floor again, again, and again. John's breathing was shallow and heavy. Tali looked in his eyes as tears flowed from his eyes. "What gives you the right to live and not them?!" He then felt a three-finger hand on his arm, it was Tali with a look of concern in her eyes.

"No, John, please this is not you," her soft voice said.

"They deserve this, Tali… for every person they harmed, for every person whose life they ruined," John said in tearful rage. "Why shouldn't I make them suffer!?"

"Because you are better than this, better than them… Your past doesn't have to control you…" John dropped the Batarian on the floor and Tali nodded to Garrus. The Turian secured the unconscious Batarian. John dropped to the floor, sobbing, Tali went down and held him as he cried into her shoulder.


	48. Chapter 32: Bring down the Sky part 3

Chapter 32: Bring down the Sky part 3

After Tali shut down the final fusion torch, it was to face Balak and save the hostages. Tali's talk had made John think, he almost jeopardized the mission because of his personal issues, and worse he treated his friends like crap. Sure they understood why he acted the way he acted, but that was no excuse, he was the leader he had to act by example. John looked at the comm link and shut it down.

"Tali, Garrus. I'm sorry for how I was acting."

"Boss, you don't' have to apologize, any one of us would have lost if we had your and Jane's history with the Batarians. Don't worry about it," Garrus was always the type that tried to calm down the people when anger got the best of them.

"But I let my hate almost consume me," John said sadly. "I made it personal and I almost got all three of us killed."

"But you didn't, we're okay John, really… You really think one event like this is going to make us turn our backs on you? We're with you no matter what. And you're the man I still love," Tali places one of her hands on his lap. Thanks to John not driving, Ragan was remote controlling it due to the harsh terrain the asteroid had.

"Thank you," John said. We the team arrived, they destroy both the normal stationary turret and the mobile turrets on the tracks above. After they were done, they went inside the building, John was impressed with set up on the base, unlike the first three bases this one had a bit of comfort. The Spectre guessed X-57 was a long-term project, which was why it had everything the engineer's need for them to work efficiently. As nice as it was, he couldn't admire it for long, the main room was full of Batarian troopers, shock troopers, engineers, and some defense drones.

"Tali you're with me on the drones. Garrus, find a spot to snipe from. We'll cover you." Tali and Garrus nodded. The team went into formations. John overloaded and sabotaged some of the drones while Tali hacked the drones to fight against the Batarians. The Batarian engineers tried to activate more drones, but Garrus used his sniper rifle to put down one Batarian after the next. After a while the Batarians stopped coming.

"I think we got them all, boss," Garrus looked around.

John shook his head. "This only the beginning, standby." John and Tali moved slowly across the base until he saw more Batarian troopers. "There's a remaining concentration of enemy troops on the other side of the room. Pick them off with your rifle and we'll finish the leftovers."

"Got you, boss." He fired and got one of them in the head. "They've gone downstairs, they're out of my sights."

John nodded. "We got this, just watch your back." John and Tali rushed the troopers. The Batarians were really giving the couple a run for their money, calling in more drones to swarm them. John corralled them with his singularity field and destroyed them with a warp field. Tali sabaotaged the drones causing to explode, and hacked the other drones to attack the Batarians, but the engineers just destroyed them before they got close. The engineers kept up their onslaught, freezing John and Tali in cover. Garrus came over to help and sniped a few engineers, but the Batarians had positioned themselves well at the top of the staircase, by being surrounded by several plant boxes and railings they were practically protected on all sides. John then noticed the canisters next to the railing. "Tali, can you get those canisters?"

Tali smirked. "Do you even have to ask?" John gave the Quarian cover, shooting the engineers, while they crouched under cover Tali overloaded the canisters causing them to explode and the Batarians to fly.

"Nice one, Tali." John opened his comm. "Garrus, met up with us." Just as Garrus had walked down the stairs, a voice appeared from behind them, from up the stairs.

"You Humans," the team turned around ready to fight, they faced a Batarian in red armor, surrounded by his men and pack of Varren. His face twisted up with rage, as he stared at the group. "You're almost more trouble than you're worth."

"I could say the same about you Balak. Why don't you give up, I wouldn't want to mess up the nice people's base."

Balak scoffed. "Predictable, but this is over."

"I think it's the other way around, the fusion torches are stopped and most of your men are dead."

Balak smirked and revealed a small silver cylinder. "And I believe you are wrong. In my hand is the detonator for the charges in your helper and her friend's room, follow me and they will die. Would you risk their death?"

"A hostage situation. Ugly and very Batarian like," Garrus whispered. "He knows he can't take us so he' bargaining the lives of the hostages for his freedom."

John looked at Tali and softly asked, yet no one else heard it, "Can you hack it?"

"I'll try… Just keep him talking." John nodded and looked at the Batarian. He smug smile was making the Spectre sick to his stomach.

"Not that simple Balak, you think after what happened here, I'm just going to let you walk?"

"This is nothing ape, you Humans are have done far worse to us."

"Really? Cause last I checked it wasn't us who are trying to kill four million of your people, blink." John went into a rant on how this as an act of reprisal of humanity's actions the Skyllian Verge, stealing territories and resources that should have belonged to the Batarians, all because the Council saw a military advantaged in befriending the Alliance. "So how does killing innocents help your case?"

"I could say the same thing about you Butcher." John narrowed his eyes and pulled a gun at him. "Don't be so surprised, when one of my men told of a black-harmed Human I knew it was you, tell me how many innocent Batarians died at Torfan?"

"They were thugs and slavers. You drew first blood on Elysium, when you did that we pushed back. You should be glad we didn't just wipe your people off the face of the galaxy. Though if we did, it would have been a fucking improvement. Khar'shan would look so much better as a parking lot, don't you agree?"

Balak growled and gave a murderous glare. "Watch what you say Human. I may just kill the hostages, before I leave."

"Do that, then you will be hunted by the Alliance and all the Spectres," Ragan's face was shown on the monitors. John was giving a smirk on that part. "And if you do that, then I will send this data to the Alliance your weak PATHETIC government will be held in war. And thanks to Humanity being part of the council races, Turians, Salarians, Asari, Drell, Hanar, Volus, and Elcor will help us put you to hell."

"I can see the headlines now. 'The Citadel Council today invited Humanity to join Council for killing off the last Batarian race,' how does that sound Balaky?" Ragan and Garrus laughed at the name.

"I'll kill you… I'll kill you human," Balak growled. "But first I'll make you suffer…" Ragan gave a smile and a bomb went off killing all of Balak's men. Balak looked behind him and went wide eyed when all his men were laying down on the floor with burnt marks. Ragan hacked into the system and made a fusion plant act as a bomb. Balak then turns around and pressed the button on the detonator and expected to hear an explosion. He looked at the detonator shocked when it didn't work.

"Aw what's wrong, your toy isn't working," John smirked.

"Damn you ape. Time to kill you…" Ragan laughed and Balak looked at him.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you. You see that was just one fusion plant. If I get the rest of the fusion plants that are beneath you and part of the base, that asteroid will be split in half," Ragan then had his finger pop up and flipped Balak off.

Balak then got his weapons and started attacking the team. He was going into cover and his first target was Tali, the Quarian blasted a couple before Balak rolled to cover to cover. John used his throw fields but it was failure when Balak hardly got his head out. Garrus got to a good place and shoot Balak in the shoulder. "FUCK YOU," Balak screamed out, he threw a grenade and Garrus ran away before it exploded. Some rockets fired at when he threw the grenade. Balak went to cover that was protecting him from the front and back side. Tali then sabotaged a canister but Balak quickly grabbed it before it exploded and threw it back at the team. John quickly grabs Tali and dives to cover. John then ran up to Balak while he was reloading and started doing hand to hand combat. Balak was good at it but failed when John kicked his face. Once Balak was on the floor, John shot him in the stomach, but he survived.

"Bastard…" Balak said coughing up blood. "Do… your worst… but there will be others… I await the day when you colonies are destroyed… you apes are enslaved… and Earth burned to the ground…"

John gave a cruel smirk. "Who ever said I was going to kill you?"

Balak's eyes grew wide. "W-What?!"

"I just came here to stop the asteroid, after all what kind of Human would I be, to deny Terra Nova and Mindoir." He faced his team. "Let's get out of here."

"THIS ISN'T OVER APE! JUST YOU WAIT THE REBELLIONS WILL BEGIN AND YOU WILL BE FINISHED," John quickly turns around and punched him.

"And what have we fucking started with the Batarians," John looked at Balak who was thinking for a moment.

"Uh…"

"That's what I thought. NOTHING TO YOUR RACE! It was your race that started it because your race was lazy. I'm glad the Batarians are getting trialed after this and when they are found guilty, execution to you and anyone that was involved with this and the colony attacks." The team then left.


	49. Chapter 33: Practice Makes Better part 1

Chapter 33: Practice Makes Better part 1

As the Normandy is heading to one of the Mass Relay, John is walking around the cockpit and looking at Ragan. It has been a full month and Ragan's leg has been healed during that time. Now he can help John with something. Ragan saw John have a big smile and he thought something was going to go wrong. He had that feeling and it was right. Something bad happens and most usually it is on someone that is asked a question by John.

"I need you to help me with training the people on weapons," John looked at Ragan, trying to see if Ragan would accept it. All he saw was him just lay back in the chair and try to relax.

"No," Ragan said very quickly. To John, that was the quickest answer he had gotten. "I'm not helping you train the crew. I might be on the ground team but I'm not training them unless they ask me personally."

John shook his head. "What you don't want to train the ground team how to do hand to hand combat? Here I thought you were going to do so?" Ragan thought to himself, '_He must really think I'm just going to drop all my duties right now and help them. I think now._' Joker turns his seat so he can face John. John looks at him and then Ragan sigh.

"What do you want me to teach them? They saw what I can do. Backflip kicks, ninja moves, and a lot other that people just say it is hard to master that," Ragan was right. It took him years to learn how to do a backflip kick. "If you ask me one more time," Joker's mouth opened but Ragan looked at him, "Don't even try Jeff." Joker closed his mouth. "You ask me one more time, I will make damn certain that Chikwas will be putting you back together and Tali will be seeing you at a funeral."

"Come on, we need to keep this up and I need to know if they are willing accept you. You pretty much shut people out when you on this ship – my ship – when are doing work. You don't come out that much. All you do is try to get food, eat, then back to work on reports. You don't even take that many breaks," John lectured Ragan. "How long as it been since you had a break?" Ragan though on that part and gave a depressed sigh.

"You're right," Ragan hated to admit anything but John had a point. "Fine, I'll do it."

"Good. Joker, send a course to the Citadel," John the walks over to Pressly and huffed at him. "I need you to send a message to whole ground team about this. And tell Jane in her message that she can help Ragan with training." Pressly gave a salute and sat down.

"Citadel on course. ETA 5 hours," Joker looked behind him and saw John was gone. He quickly turns to Ragan, who shrugged. "Great, just great."

John then walks to the air lock and starts typing on his omni-tool. As he gets a hold of the C-Sec officer of Zakera Ward, he then sees Joker trying to find him. The comm opens up and a Turian is heard.

"C-Sec authorization only, please call back in…"

"This is Commander Johnathan Ryu Shepard, Council Spectre," John then heard the Turain clear his throat.

"Sorry about that sir. Please note that this call may be recorded and being monitored at any time. You are talking to C-Sec Acting Captain Herigo Daidva, Special Tactics of Criminal Invesigation Branch of Zakera Ward of C-Sec. How can I help you, Spectre?"

John took a deep breath, "I need to borrow two things when we arrive to the Citadel. One of them is a gun range. And the other is a martial arts training room."

The Turian starts typing on the terminal. "Here we go, and how would you like to have the schedule as well? The Gun Range will be used only for five hours and the martial arts TR will only have six hours. Unless you are doing a big mission and the Council authorized it."

"The Council had put me in charge to find Saren…" John then stopped when the Turian looked at him with a shocked face. "I'm guessing you don't believe me."

"I believe you. If you are going after him, you need it more than us. I will have all my men train at a different Ward with the other C-Sec officers," he starts typing on the terminal again and then presses a button. "Okay, got you set. How long till you get to the Citadel?"

"Five hours is our ETA."

"Okay, then I will contact the Council to allow you to come to Docking Bay D-24. It is the closest docking bay towards the…"

"That won't be necessary. I want my team to walk or run as far as they can to get to the training room. But not too far. So I will be heading to Docking Bay A-12. Our ship is the Normandy. Please tag that on to your system for the combat training rooms and gun ranges that you are stationing us to use. We will be there for five days."

The Turian then looks behind him and starts talking to a Human. "Bailey, I want the Normandy registered to the combat rooms 4 and 6. Do so with gun range room 5. Have it for them for 5 days only." The Human salutes him and starts working on it. "Anything else Spectre?"

"I will also need to know the rules of your rooms. Please download them to me as soon as you can."

"Well do." The Turian then turns around to a Salarain and motions him forward. "I need you to download the rules of our combat and gun range rooms to Spectre Commander Johnathan Ryu Shepard."

"Yes, sir," the Salarian salutes him and walks back to his post.

"Anything else?"

"That will be it?"

"Thank you for contacting us about this," Daivda then cuts the comm link.

John walks back to the cockpit and finds Joker looking at him with a shocked face. "I need to contact the whole team." Joker then waves his hand to the intercom button and looks at him. John comes up to it and presses it down. "Attention all crew, this is your Captain speaking. We will be getting to the Docking Bay A-12 on the Citadel in less than five hours. I want to tell you that it is a good time for you to work with you all and I want you to know that you have a five day shore leave once we get there. And since I'm on here. I want to see Lieutenant Commander Jane Kasumi Shepard and Staff-Sergeant Ragan Ryu Shepard in the debriefing room in fifteen. The rest of the ground squad in thirty minutes. I have some good news to give you. Ground squad, get your equipment ready and armor on. I want to see you in the debriefing room with that. If you don't have it on, then you will not be on the next mission. That is all. If you have any questions about the shore leave time, contact Staff-Sergeant Shepard about the schedule. That is all for now, Commander Shepard out." John got down talking and heard the whole crew go on a blast for the shore leave.

"Still got it," John said.

Ragan and Jane got to the Debriefing Room and looked around to find no John. They then hear the door open up. "Okay, this is what I gathered you two here for. Jane and Ragan, I want you two to help me with training the ground team. I will have shotguns and heavy weapons. Jane you get sniper rifles and assault rifles. Ragan you get pistols and SMGs. This if for the gun ranged. Now for the martial arts room…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…," Jane was confused. "What are you talking about?"

"I got us to use C-Sec training rooms for us to use so that we can get better with the mission. We will be training each other. I came up with a plan for that. There are nine of us, and we will take two of them because we are skilled with the weapons." Ragan and Jane nodded. "Jane you pick your two, Ragan you pick your two."

Ragan spoke up, "I'll get Wrex and Garrus for the first wave."

"I'll get Kaiden and Liara," Jane sounded optimistic.

"Then that leave me with Tali and Ash. Okay now time for the shifts."

Ragan looked at him and gave a sigh, "Okay, so we get what 24 hours or what?"

"Twenty-four hours for the day. They will be opened for five days. So who will get it first?"

Ragan raised his hand, "I'll do it. Then you and Jane can do it."

Jane nodded in agreement with John. They both knew that Ragan knows it will take the longest time for both of them and it would be easy for him to get it down, plus his duties as CXO on the Normandy are required. "Okay, then we switch up. Tali and Ash will go to Jane, and Jane's will go to Ragan and Ragan's will go to me. And we keep on until we are done for the gun parts."

"Sounds good to me, Ragan," Jane looked at Ragan and rolled her eyes. For a cousin that was part of the family, he didn't do much for the family or take in what the family wants. Of course, his mother and father died when he was two and he got adopted by John's real father's brother, Matthew Shepard. And with Matt being away for most of the time with his wife, Ragan never had a 'true' family.

"I agree with you on that," John looked at Ragan and then looked at Jane, who was confused at for a moment.

"Okay, then time for the martial arts. We each pick two like last time but we pick another to help us," John then saw Jane and Ragan flinch a little. "What?"

"I work alone when I'm training people," Ragan said.

"I do too," Jane was lying on that part. She had Ashley and Garrus help her with Tali working on to handle the Mako's controls when she came onboard.

"Jane, you just lied. I can tell, we might be twins, but I can still tell a lie from you when I hear it," John pointed at her.

"Okay fine, I'll take Ash and Wrex for that," Jane said. Ragan looked at her and shook his head.

"Good luck with that, I'm taking the lost cause ones with me, Kaiden and Laira," Ragan gave a smile.

"Great, that means Garrus and Tali with me. Who's first there," John then heard the door open and the rest of the ground team comes in.

"Why not you," Ragan looked at John and Jane nodded in agreement. "And we can switch it like the last time."

"Okay, then its settled. Attention," the ground team got in military formation and stood there like statues. "Move forward and circle around the hologram vision." The ground team went where John said. "I have you here because I just got word about this. I have contacted someone on the Citadel to allow us to use training rooms and gun ranges from C-Sec for the next five days. This is how it will be. There will be two groups for each teachers – me, Jane and Ragan – and we will teach you gun shooting and melee. This is a test and when you get down, you are to sit down in the hallway. Melee team with me is Garrus and Tali. Shooting team is Tali and Ash." Those three looked at each other. "And no, I didn't go first on that. I went last."

Jane then placed her hands on the hologram vision, "Melee with me is Ash and Wrex. Shooting is Kaiden and Liara."

Ragan then step forward, "Garrus and Wrex are with me on shooting. Melee: Kaiden and Liara."

"Any questions," John looked around them.

Garrus got up and shook his head, "I'm sure all three of you made this but what is the purpose of this?"

John smiled at Ragan and nodded his head. "This is to make sure that you stay in top conditions for fighting Saren if we get a lead. I'll explain more when we get to the training parts. Right now, have your weapons and melee training with each other. I told you to wear your armor because I don't know who will be going with Wrex and Garrus for melee."

"Great, so we don't know what else to do until the next four hours and thirty minutes," Ash said. "Then I'm going to be heading to my post."

"Alright ground team, I want you to head to the gun range when we land. Dismissed," John then saw everyone walk out but Tali. She stayed there and hugged him. "I think they wanted me to be with you the whole time."

"I'm sure of that," she then places her visor on his forehead and rubs his back with her hands.


	50. Chapter 33: Practice Makes Better part 2

Chapter 33: Practice Makes Perfect part 2

As the Normandy is docked, Kiaden walks out with everyone on the ground team but Ragan, Jane and John. To them, something must have come up or they were doing less work and testing the ground team's patience. Either way, it was still easy for them. They come to the elevator and look at each other.

Garrus then sighed, "I have a bad feeling of this. I mean, you tell us that we will be practicing all day before we go after Saren and then practice more on shore leave."

Tali smiled and looked at him, "I know that feeling but you have to remember: Saren is our number one target and we have to end him quickly. Who knows what might happen if we don't have practice."

As the elevator came down, the team gets in and waits for it to head to the training rooms and gun ranges there were heading to. It was a cruel five minute trip from the floor they were on to the Floor 45 of C-Sec Commendations Office and Human Spectre Office; which is still get worked on. Garrus and Wrex look at this and gave a nod. The team finally walks down the hallway and sits down in the chairs that have their ship name above it.

After a few minutes, John, Jane and Ragan finally show up. To the team, they were glad because they felt like something was going to happen if they didn't come. "Alright team, we are here to see what you can do and can't do. The way this will work is by use teaching you how to handle the weapon if you never used it. You have five practice shots at this ranges 5 meters through 160 meters," John then nodded at Ragan.

"The point value will go like this: Hit the target where we tell you to hit it, reload when you want, and no using modified weapons. All weapons inside are given to us to burrow for the next five days, so they haven't been modified. But the reason why I said no modified weapons is because of you can make your bullets in cyro rounds or something else. Any powers you use will not taking you score. All three of us will take point count but the weapons that you will be using will only be affected by the person that chose the weapons to grade. For example: I'm for pistols and SMGs, meaning my points will have more say into the Pistols and SMGs unlike John and Jane's say so," Ragan then nodded at Jane.

"You will be tested for accuracy, speed of reloading, rate of fire, and the point value that is on the targets. The weapons that will be used are Pistols and SMGs for Ragan, Sniper Rifles and Assualt Rifles for me, and Heavy Weapons and Shotguns for John. Ragan's team will go in. Once done, then mine team and then John's team. After that Ragan's team will go to my team, and my team will go to John's and John's will go to Ragan. We will do that until all of you have been tested. So Ragan's team, stand forth and move in," Jane ordered. Garrus and Wrex got up and enter the room, followed by John, Ragan, and Jane. After thirty minute they came out of the room panting.

Garrus and Wrex then looked at Liara and Kiaden and motioned them to move in. "Great, me and the Asari are next." Another thirty minutes came and the motioned Ash and Tali.

"Ready to show how real women do it, Tali," Ash asked. Tali nodded and went in. Another thirty minutes.

After all the teams got to go, John came out with the results. "Okay people, we have the results. This was a test, you will be practicing on your own him. Garrus will teach Liara sniper rifles. Tali will teach Ash shotguns. Kaiden will teach Wrex pistols, Wrex will teach Tali SMGs, and Liara will teach Garrus heave weapons. That is during the morning times. Afternoon times: Jane, me and Ragan will teach the following: Tali, Ash, Liara, and Garrus for SMGs. We will also teaching them others if they want to. Now let's move out to the Martial Arts training room."

They went down the hallway and turn the right to find the training room there. Ragan and Jane left the gun range and met up with rest of the team. Ragan was the expert of Hand to Hand combat so he had the whole thing laid out. "Okay, same thing like last time. But instead all three of our scores will count the same. We will see if you are capable of defeating me in fist-a-cuffs," Ragan then looked into their eyes and saw fear. They knew what he was capable of. Fast, strong, and his reactions are beyond Human. Basically Ragan was just a super soldier that was made by the Alliance. "Don't worry, I'll go easy. Now the way this will work on points is by the following: Punches, Kicks, Pop-ups, Grappels, Bouncers, Bounce Away, Bounce Towards, Stun, Stumble, and Power/Biotic combos. If you fail one, it will not hurt you. If you fail more than four, then it will hurt you. In fact we have decided to just let you all come in one by one instead of teams. We will not have the switching because you will be forced to spar with me at this time," Ragan looked at John and Jane and saw them go in the room. "I want Garrus first." Garrus gulped when he heard his name but he didn't want to keep Ragan waiting. "When you enter, step in the circle and get ready to fight. There is only one round. Fail that round if you don't have the required amount done, you will be put back on the list for later." Garrus and Ragan then walks in the training room. After five minutes, Garrus walks out and sees everyone looking at him.

"He's tough, beat me on the round but I got the required amount of what was need," Garrus then looked at Wrex, "You're next, Wrex." Wrex got up and went in.

"I hope he doesn't fail like you did," Tali said.

"Just because I failed the round doesn't mean anything. Ragan didn't say that we will fail if we lose the round."

Five minutes later, Wrex comes out and shakes his head. "He beat a true Krogan," he said in disbelief. "I don't know how. And I failed."

"Wrex, get in here," Ragan's voice was heard. Wrex got back in and the door closed. The team heard him talk but they couldn't understand it because the wall was muzzling the noise.

Wrex comes out and looks at them. "Looks like my charge was a popup and a bounce away." He then looks at Ash, "He wants you Gunnery Chief."

Ash shook her head and got in. "She is going to get hurt," Garrus mumbled. Tali and Kaiden looked at him like something was wrong. "What?"

"Nothing," Kaiden said. He knew that the Turian had a crush on Jane and also on Ash.

Ash finally comes out within two minutes. "First one to beat him," she proudly said. "And I got it all." Garrus then looked at Kaiden and then back to Ash.

"Damn," he said.

"Liara, your next, and Ragan trained you before so he will be expecting some advanced moves from you." Liara got up and went into the training room. "I'll say she will defeat him because she was trained by Ragan." Garrus cleared his throat loudly and got Ash's attention.

"What am I – oh what do you Humans say – chop beef?"

Kaiden and Ash laughed at him, "Its chop liver," they both said in unity.

Tali looked at them and shook her head. "Great, now what?"

Liara comes out of the training room and puts a smile. "I couldn't defeat him. But I did get the requirements."

"That's good," Tali said.

"Next is Kaiden," Liara pointed at him. "And try to do your best. Now they are making bets say that whoever beats him next will get a drink for free. And Ragan had to pay for the drinks."

Kaiden shook his head, '_Really, they are doing that? Right now?_' He walks in and the door closes. After a minute, he comes out, "I passed but I didn't win the round. He is quick and when he got me in the stomach, it was game over for me. Looks like you're up Tali."

Tali nodded and went in the room. Instead of five minutes, Tali came out in two minutes. "I passed and defeated him before he could put one blow on me." Everyone looked at her with their jaws dropped. "What?"

"You took him down without getting hit," Wrex looks at everyone and saw how they were all in shock.

"That's like never happened in five years," Kaiden looked at them and saw John and them come out of the training room. "John must have done something about this."

John looked at them and shook his head. "What do you mean," he was confused.

"You had Tali beat Ragan without getting hit, you did something because all of us before here were attacked and Kaiden got the worse of it," Ash looks at Ragan.

"Tali beat me, fair and square. The reason why she beat me was because she was quick on her feet and she nearly broke my bones by using pressure points," everyone looked at her. "Plus, it was hard to avoid quick attacks that were coming from below and working their way up." Ragan then grabs his arm and starts popping in place. "She even popped my shoulder and hips out of place."

John then looked at the team. "Okay, got the results and it turns out that none of you need help with punches and kicks. Liara, Ash, and Kaiden need help with grapples. Wrex, you need to work on pop-ups. And Garrus, you need to work on Bounce towards. The rest are okay. Dismissed." Ragan and Jane walked towards the gun range and entered. Everyone else went their separate ways, but left Tali and John in the hallway. "I hope you are okay with me training you in secret."

"I'll be fine with that," Tali said like she was hiding something.


	51. Chapter 34: Coming to Virmire

Chapter 34: Coming to Virmire

It was a peaceful day on the Normandy, John and the crew was eating lunch and it the last day of their shore leave. They heard the ship's com. Since dealing with Balak and his asteroid plot, the Spectre was much calmer and friendlier however his sense of serenity was disrupted by the comm opening. "Message coming in John, it's the council! And they request that Ragan stay out of it," Joker said. John sighed. He was not in the mood for the councilors' whining and bitching.

"Thanks Joker, I'll take it in the Comm Room."

"For a group that doesn't like you they sure ask for your help a lot," John smirked when Joker said that.

"Maybe they know how awesome I can be," John joked and the crew tried to hold in their laughs.

"Nope, that can't be it," Tali joked. John looked at her feigning insult.

"Ouch Rookie, you know how to wound me," he said being playfully dramatic. "And here I thought you loved me." Tali giggled. Ragan just busted out laughing.

"God that was good Tali, that was good," Ragan was trying to not laugh in the sentence.

"I do, but someone have to keep your ego in check. Right Ragan," Ragan went wide eyed when he heard his name. He dropped his fork on purpose.

"Oh… aw… I dropped my fork," Ragan went under the table and stayed there.

"And that's why you're my girl, Tali!" He smiled before kissing her on the helmet.

"Will you got and talk to those pijacks? You're giving me indigestion," Wrex said annoyed. Wrex almost gagged on his food. John laughed and walked to the Comm Room.

'_Now to talk with my favorite people,_' he though annoyed. John pressed a button and the councilors appeared. "Councilors, how nice to see you."

"You can stop with the disingenuous greeting Shepard. It doesn't suit you," the Turian councilor looked at him and shook his head. "But talking to us like you did before you became a Spectre does."

John crossed his arms, "And here I thought you missed my sunny personality, just like I missed yours." The Turian councilor glared at him with a confused looked. "I was being sarcastic." That angered the councilor, he was about to say something but the Asari spoke up.

"I know how much you like to antagonize us, but do try to be professional for once. We have an update on Saren with some bad news."

John stood at attention, it's been a long time since they heard anything about Saren, but the bad news part got to him. "What you got?"

"We've received an urgent message from one of our infiltrations regiments in the Traverse," the Salarian councilor explained.

"And?"

"We currently have several Special Task Groups scattered in the border regions on the Citadel space. This particular unit was gathering intel on Saren."

John sighed, "You know, it would have been nice to know that earlier instead of me running around, like a headless chicken." All three councilors looked at him confused. "Chicken is an Earth bird that doesn't fly very far." All three councilors then got the message.

"We can't have you racing around the galaxy chasing false leads, Shepard. Give your tendency of cause trouble…"

"Trouble… Sure I made a mistake but not as bad as your ancestors did. Releasing the genophage on the Krogan after the Salarians uplifted them to fight the Rachni. You condemned the whole race over a sight of a few ones that caused the Krogan Rebellions. You want to say I caused trouble and Humanity also has, then I should be judging your race as well Sparatus," Sparatus flinched when John just snapped about that. But John was right.

"Commander, I'm sorry for that. I didn't mean," that was shocking to John. Sparatus apologizing for something was never in his mind but something was wrong.

"So what is this significant information?"

"We cannot fully say," the Salarian councilor said. "The message we receive was little more than static. We suspect the team is currently unable to set up proper interstellar communications. But it was sent on a channel reserved for mission critical communications. Whatever they were trying to tell us, we know it was important."

"We know the unit was investigating Saren," the Sparatus continued. "We know they tried to tell us something important and we know they were on the planet Virmire. We can also conclude that they are in trouble and have found something on Saren."

"Given your interest in that case, we thought you might want to know," the Asari said.

John sighed. "I guess some info is better than now, I know better to look a gift horse in the mouth." The three councilors looked at him blankly. "Another Earth animal. Used it to care good but now it is for transportation."

"We'll keep you advised if we learn anything else. Good luck Commander."

After the holographic images had faded, John opened the comm link. "Joker, set coordinates to the Hoc System."

"Got you Commander. ETA in ten hours," Joker said.

As the Normandy is approaching Virmire, Joker pick up a signal from the Salarian STG team, and Kaiden notices the massive defense towers that surrounds Saren's base. Ragan is hacking into the system but is auto booted out of the hacking. John decides to go in by Mako and take them out. Joker flied the Normandy Saren's radar and dops the Mako at low altitude. Once the Mako rolls to a stop, Joker comes over the radio.

"Johh, come in."

John opened the comm link. "Nice work Joker, stay out of range until I bring those AA towers down."

"Roger that Commander." The team looked around the planet; Virmire was definitely a picture of paradise. If it wasn't for the fact Saren and his Geth were here it was the perfect vacation spot, provided they could avoid the pirates that sometimes uses the planet a base. John looked back at Ragan, Tali and Garrus, it seemed they had the same thought too.

"Better than Earth," Ragan was shocked. He activates his cloak and starts climbing a cliff. "I'll meet you at the STG camp."

"Keelah, this planet is beautiful," Tali was in complete awe.

"Too bad it's so close to the Terminus Systems, it could be one for those gem worlds like Illum," Garrus said.

John chuckled and shook his head. "Come on, we can sightsee later, now we have AA gun to destroy." Tali and Garrus nodded and the team gets in the Mako. "John here, Ragan do you read me?"

"I read you. I'm heading to the STG Base now. I'm going to help them. You focus on the AA guns. But be careful, I saw some Geth Armatures around this area. Ragan out."

The team headed off starting the mission, John was careful when approaching the rocks so the Mako wouldn't fall into the water, the tank was great a climbing mountains, in water it would sink like a stone. Around the second corner they encountered some Geth rocket drones and Geth assault drone. Garrus readies the Mako's guns and fired but the Turian actually found it harder to take them out due to them moving around so much, but after getting their flight patterns down, they were taken down fast.

They went ahead on the right are some Geth rocket troopers, surrounded by more drones and a Geth juggernaut fired wildly fired at the Mako. It took all of John's crazy maneuvering to keep from being hit, Garrus took down the troopers and juggernauts first since they were the easiest, and then switched to the machine guns to blast the drones out of the sky. Halfway down the next stretch the Mako was shook hard and then again. "What was that," Turian looked at Tali.

"I don't know. The radar is jammed," Tali said.

"Shit, Garrus anything you see, shoot at it," John then looked around to find what shot them.

"Got it Boss." Without the radar the Mako was riding blind, possible into an enemy trap, Garrus did what he told and shot at anything he could see. With several blasts the tank's machine gun, the Turian was able to take down rocket drones. The Mako was hit again, this time from the troopers, Garrus fired on them only for it to be blocked with a hexagonal energy shield.

"Garrus switch to the main gun," Tali said. "Their shields won't be able to take it." Garrus switched guns and fired, the shields broke and the Geth went flying and they moved along. They got close to the first gatehouse the team start to come under fire from the Geth guarding it, the group consists of Geth snipers, rocket troopers, regular troopers, shock troopers. John drove the Mako back, dodging the fire while Garrus fired the main gun. The snipers and troopers were taken but the rocket troopers were in deep. John drove up and the team exited the Mako and took them down. Tali went down to the edge of the gatehouse, where she found the first console; with a few presses the first AA gun was disabled.

"Done," Tali said.

"One down, one to go," John said. The team went back to the Mako, the next trek was more difficult this time, and the canyons were infested by Geth Armatures and colossi, eventually they made it to the next gatehouse where disabled the second AA guns. As the Mako drove past the last gatehouse, the Normandy could be seen en route to the Salarian camp. The comm opened.

"Commander, Normandy's touched down, but there's a problem," Joker said.

"What is it," John then looked at Tali.

"The Salarain Captain or Ragan can explain when you get there."

John sighed. "Roger that." When the Mako finally reached the camp, they got out to see Ashley and Kaiden arguing with the Salarian Captain. John then saw Ragan come up and gently shoved both of them out of the way. John went to check it out. "Hey, what's going on?"

Kaiden looked at him. "We're grounded."

"Yeah I got that much from Joker but why? What's the situation?"

"Of course, I'm Captain Kirrahe, 3rd Infiltration Regiment of STG," the captain said. "You and your crew have landed in the middle of a hot zone, every AA gun within ten miles have been alerted of your presence."

"What are we supposed to do in the meantime," Ragan asked.

"We stay put until the council sends the reinforcements…"

"We are that reinforcements," Kirrah looked confused, the team looked at each other sheepishly. Kirrah looked at Ragan. "We are here under Spectre authority by the Council permission. Me and Commander Shepard at the Spectres and we are here to find out what Saren is up to before he tries something worse than Eden Prime."


	52. Chapter 35: Virmire part 1

Chapter 35: Virmire part 1

Team watched as Captain Kirrahe paced back and forth cursing in what had got to be the Salarian Language. John couldn't blame him; he and his team spent all that time hoping for the Calvary to arrive only to find out it was them. John had explained that his message was broken up, and the council sent him to investigate, but that only made the Salarian worried. John shared his concern with one ship, its ground team, and a weakened Salarian team against Saren's Geth army; it was going to be a mess. "One ship? They sent one ship for something as big as this?"

Ragan and John raised a brow. "Big? What are you talking about," John then heard Ragan say something under his breath but didn't catch it.

"Saren's operation base, he's set up a research facility here but it's crawling with Geth and heavily fortified," Kirrahe said. "I lost half my men to that place, which was why I was hoping the council sent a fleet."

"Is Saren here, have you seen him," Kaiden asked.

Kirrahe shook his head. "No, but we've intercepted some comms referring to him, so he may come."

"Fuck, that's not good then. But it saves us the time to find him that is if he comes," Ragan cursed. Kirrahe looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"What's he doing," serious as John could be, he wanted to know so he can blow it up.

"He's using the facility to breed an army of Krogan," Ragan's eyes went wide. That caught Wrex's ear, he came over to the group and the Salarians looked very nervous seeing him. After the Krogan had never forgiven them creating the plague and the Turians used it.

"How is that possible," Wrex was in denial about that.

"Apparently Saren had discovered a cure for the genophage," Ragan waved his hands back and forth like don't say any more. Unfazed by the battlemaster in front of him, Kirrahe saw the team's eye went wide. A cure for the genophage would mean the restart of the Krogan Rebellons, the galaxy barely won against them the first time and without another strain the galaxy would burn this time around. Especially the Krogan's biggest enemies; the Turians and Salarians. "His Geth are already bad enough, but an endless supply of Krogan, loyal to Saren would make him almost invincible. This bas and all of its secrets must be destroyed."

Wrex frowned. "Destroyed? I don't think so. My people are dying because of you damn plague. This cure can save them."

"Urdnot Wrex, if the cure is given, then the Krogan Rebellions will be worse than last time. And the galaxy would be destroyed. I know how you feel, but…"

Wrex got into Kirrahe's face growling, the Salarians were close to raising their weapons, the tension was getting thick. "You know nothing, pijack, you haven't seen the children that never had a chance. So don't you dare patronize me!" Wrex turned away, fuming, the Salarians quickly got out of his way. Kirrahe spoke up.

"Is he going to be a problem? We already have enough angry Krogan to deal with."

John frowned. "Can't you blame him? Sterilizing someone's whole race would piss anyone off."

"I was the only way, Commander, for our sakes and theirs," Kirrahe saw Ragan shake his head. Ragan knew history but he knew it was the Salarains own fault that made the Krogan in violent people they are nowadays.

"If YOUR race didn't uplifted the Krogan when the Rachni wars was going on they wouldn't be like that. You should have dealt with your own GODDAMN FUCKING PROBLEMS," Ragan yelled at Kirrahe. "Remember what I'm about to tell you: The created will always rebel the creators and the uplifted will do what they want because you can't fix STUPID KROGAN!"

"I see your point on that but if we tried to deal with the problem ourselves, we would have died."

"And that should have happened. Curiosity killed the Salarian."

Kirrahe understood what Ragan meant. Ragan was telling them to die like a warrior not a coward like they were always doing. "Anyway, my men and I need to rethink our plan; can you give us some time," John nodded and Kirrahe left, leaving him with Ragan, Kaiden and Ash. John knew what they were thinking about, Wrex.

"Things are bit of mess…," Kaiden said.

"No kidding and a pissed off Wrex is not helping things," Ash commented.

"I'll go talk to him, straighten things out," Ragan shook his head at John.

"I'm not sure that is a good plan, cuz. I mean, he is Krogan and the Krogan are known for violence," Ragan said.

"You need to get off my back for that," John said while pointing a finger at him. "Thanks you, now the Salarians are thinking of killing Wrex.

"Want us to come," Ash said.

John shook his head. "No reinforcements will only make him think we don't trust him, I'll do this alone. Man to man." Kaiden and Ash looked at each other worriedly. "I'll be find, if I could talk him down on the Rachni queen, I can talk him down on this." John went over and talked to Wrex, he had calmed down a little, but the Spectre was careful when approaching him. He then heard the Krogan shooting at the eas with his shotgun, John checked if he had a weapon for when things went to Hell, and he hoped he wouldn't have to use it.

"This isn't right, Shepard. If there's a cure for a genophage, we can't destroy it," Wrex didn't bother to turn his head while speaking.

"I know this means a lot but…"

"But nothing, this is the fate of my entire people we're talking about," Wrex was angered about that part. "Those pijacks are only worried about themselves; if was the same way when they created the genophage! And Ragan is right, the Salarians shouldn't have uplifted us. We were a peaceful race towards others but not anymore."

"Easy Wrex… just think for a moment, we're not even sure if it's a true cure, Saren could be playing your people for suckers, you know how much of a manipulative bastard he is."

"That's a chance we should be willing to take! I've been loyal to you so fare, when you told me to shoot, I shot, you told me to kill, I killed, I even went along with you releasing the damn queen, and all that time I asked for nothing in return.

"This time I'm asking you for this one thing, help me save my people." John looked at him with surprised look, the Krogan was almost pleading for this cure. All he said was true, of everyone on the team, Wrex had no reason to stay with the Normandy crew, even when he got back his family armor he could have left any time he wanted, but stayed for them. Could he really spit Wrex's face, despite all the things he done for him and the crew?

John sighed, "You're right, I do owe you for staying with me this long, if we find the cure, you'll have it provided if it's not malfunctioned. Hell it's probably in better hands with you, but let's focus on making sure Saren doesn't have it first."

Wrex nodded satisfied with his answer. "Right." John turned around and Wrex spoke up. "I don't say this often… but thank you." John nodded back and walked back to Kaiden and Ash.

"Nice work with Wrex, though I'm surprised that he agreed to have the genophage cure destroyed so quickly," Kaiden saw John rubbed his head sheepishly and his eyes went wide. "You didn't…"

"I promised Wrex that if there was a cure I would get it for him but if it's malfunctioned, then the deal will be off," John said.

"What?! If the Council hears of that they'll strip you of your Spectre status," Ash looked at Ragan. "And he will hunt you down and kill you for repeating history all over." Ragan nodded.

"Shh, not so loud! I know, but I figure with Wrex being a battlemaster, he'll have some pull with the Krogan, you know put his people right path."

"But…" Ash said.

"I trust Wrex, he'll do the right thing."

Kaiden sighed. "You're really going ahead with this, aren't you?" John nodded. "Just be careful, okay."

"Got it." Kirrahe walked up to the group he said that he has come up with a plan, sort of, and involves high risk and a lot of luck. The plan involved the Salarians converting their ship's drive systems into a twenty kiloton ordinance to destroy the facility. To do this he would divide his mean into three teams: Aegohr, Mannovai, and Jaeto. And hit the front of the facility while Shepard and his team 'Shadow' sneaks around back. He also asked John for a huge, difficult favor, he needs one of John's squad for the assault. John wasn't sure about loaning his people to people he just met, but this was too important let that thought get in the way.

"Take Ashley, if you're going to be the decoy, you'll need firepower," John pointed to her.

Kirrahe nodded. "I will have the ordnance loaded on the Normandy and brief your crew of its detonation sequencing."

"Alright, ready when you are," John grabs his pistol and loads it.

"Excellent, I'll prepare my men," Kirrahe said walking away leaving John with his team.

Ash sighed, "Well this is it."

"Hey don't say that, we'll make it through this and take out Saren together," John then looked at the rest of the team before looking back at Ash.

All Ash did was smile, "Right, don't do anything stupid while I'm gone, okay?"

"Alright, only if you promise to do the same." Kirrahe came out with his men who were standing at attention, he turned to his men. John couldn't help but admire them, a lot of them were not going to come back, but they were going to go into the lion's den anyway. Bravery in the face adversity, this was what being a soldier was all about.

"You all know the mission and what is at stake. I have come to trust you all with my life – but I have also heard murmurs of discontent. I share your concerns. We are trained for espionage; we would be legends, but the records are sealed. Glory in battle is not our way. Think of our heroes; the Silent Step, who defeat a nation with a single shot, or the Ever Alert, who kept armies at bay with hidden facts. These giants do not seem to give up solace here, but they are not all that we are. Before the network, there was the fleet. Before diplomacy, there were soldiers! Our influence stopped the rachni, but that we held the line! Our influence that stopped and doomed the Krogan, but before that, we held the line! Our influence will stop Saren; in the battle today, we will HOLD THE LINE," Kirrahe then saw all the Salarians lift their weapons up.

'_Not bad,_' John thought with a smirk. "Commander, good luck, I hope to fight alongside you in the future," Kirrahe said as he held out his hand.

John shook it, "Me too."


	53. Chapter 35: Virmire part 2

Chapter 35: Virmire part 2

John and the team jumped down behind a wall and surveyed the area. There were no enemies, for now. For the Shadow team assault, he brought Tali due the Geth being entrenched with the base, Res for Korgans and bigger targets, and Ragan for taking out enemies while in the cover so less enemies to deal with. He brought Wrex because he promised the Krogan the cure when they had gotten to the lab. John opened his comm. "Shadow team in position. Ragan is heading in the docks," he uses the three fingers and counts backwards until no fingers are there so Ragan can get in, "now." Ragan quickly jumps up and climbs up the wall with his kunai and got in the base by removing the vent cover and jump in.

"Understood, we'll start our push. We'll try to make it to the AA gun, but it might be up to you to finish the job," Kirrahe said. "Also there are some satellite uplinks up ahead, if you can take out that would be appreciated."

"Got it," John said. They head forward and in the distance, they could see a watchtower of sorts. Kirrah was not kidding when he said this was big.

"Keelah, how did Saren manage this for so long without anyone knowing," Tali was in awe.

"Deceit, money, and lots of guns," Wrex was shocked at this. They head towards the tower and went to cover, as Geth troopers, rocket troopers, and shock troopers will greet them with a hail of gunfire. Tali hacked the rocket trooper in the front, the rocket trooper turned its attention to the troopers and shock troopers, and the three Geth turned on each other. One of the spared rocket troopers was taken up in the vents and came back down without any head. '_Guess Ragan is good for sneaking instead of front attacks because the others didn't notice him,_' Wrex was shocked when another rocket trooper was killed but this time, Ragan jumps up and quickly slams the Geth's head to the floor. Two of the Geth units turn their attention but Ragan was too quick. He went to the second unit that was closest to him and broke the neck then went to the third one and slammed it to the wall. John blasted the shock trooper's head off with his pistol and quickly shoot another Geth when it turned towards Ragan. Wrex went out of cover and rammed the rocket trooper just before its program came back to normal and ripped its head off with his bare hands. The trooper fired at the Krogan, causing Wrex to creat a barrier to protect himself. John overloaded the trooper's shields and Tali sabotaged the Geth weapon cause him to be destroyed.

When the Geth were no more the team moved up the ramp and saw console protected by geth snipers and destroyers. Wrex played deco and charge the nearest Geth, the snipers targets the Krongan but was shot by the now hacked Destroyer and more geth came in as reinforcements, but was thrown by Wrex's throw field. Ragan gets in the vents and starts moving through there and find himself behind some destroyers, which he quickly comes out and busts both of the destroyers' backs with a shotgun blast. Tali sabotaged the troopers wiping out their numbers. "Rookie, you're up." The Quarian nodded and disabled the geth's communications and triangulation frequencies.

"Something's scrambled their targeting systems, we got a shot, Chief Williams, take the heat off Mannovia," one of the Salarians were head over the comm link.

The team went straight northwards at the next junction. Forming a single file, they advanced closely along a cliff, until they meet with a swarm of rocket drones firing at the team. John used singularity and Ragan quickly cloaks and runs behind them. Right when they slammed each other, Ragan quickly grabs two of them and slams them to the floor then uppercuts one of the Geth followed by a kick. The last one was floating but Ragan ended that when he jumped in the air and tore its head off. Tali and Wrex were impressed with that. They moved out of the canyon, and into the next watch tower they encountered more rocket drones and a Geth destroyer that just loved to get it their face mostly John's. To make matters worse they were reinforced by Krogan, who couldn't resist attacking Wrex. The team was separated by their enemies, the Krogans made a swipe at Wrex who dodge and blew them back with a throw field.

Wrex scoffed," Whelps." Meanwhile the destroyer was taking down all the cover it could find and the Spectres was out of cover the Geth would charge and John would dodge, but he couldn't do it forever.

"Rookie, anytime you're ready… you know, no hurry," John said. Tali looked back at him and hacked one of the rocket drones to ram into the destroyer, stunning it while John and Ragan gunned it down. John then smashed the rest of the drones with a throw field.

"They're calling sat-strikes! Jaeto, watch for comm stations," Kirrahe's voice was heard in their earpieces.

"That sounded bad. Really bad," Ragan nodded in agreement with John.

"Combined air and satellite strikes," Tali then looked into the system. "For the geth to get this aggressive… They must be getting worried." Tali looked around the compound and saw a structure on the roof.

"Rookie?" Tali raised her weapon and shot the structure, she walked back the John, Ragan, and Wrex.

"There, Kirrahe and Ash shouldn't have any problems with the satellite strikes. Well come on." They headed up the ramp and headed south. Once on the platform tow Krogans popped up and wasted no time attacking the team. Joining them were geth trooper and a destroyer. Because there was little cover, they had to get them off-balance and gun them down. John used his throw field while Ragan did shadow strike to stop a charging Krogan. Wrex had the other Krogan in a charging match, while Tali dealt with the Geth, she hacked the destroyer who then charged at the Geth closest to it. Wrex tired of the young Krogan, lifted him off the ground.

"John," he yelled. John nodded and rolled out of the way when Wrex went through the Krogan, knocking them both on the ground. Before they could react, John and Wrex mowed them down. The team crossed the bridge and entered the small door leading through the wall and crossed a metal plank leading to the entrance of the central facility building.

"Finally," John exhaustedly said. "We've finally reached this damn building." Tali went to the terminal and called for John. "What's up rookie?"

"I've got access to base security. I can cut the alarms from here, and maybe trigger alarms on the far side of the base," Tali explained. "It'll clear the guards, but they may be too much for the Salarians and Ash."

"Just silence the alarms, we'll handle any guards inside."

Wrex smashed his fists together. "Nice, a fight to the cure. Wouldn't have any other way."

Tali scoffed. "Glad to see you're happy about difficult odds." She typed into the terminal and the doors opened. Ragan quickly finds another vent and enters it.

John nodded. "Good, let's clean this place out." The door opened and the team rushed in, entering a Cargo Bay. Huge crates were positioned inside it and the team advanced from cover to cover, flanking any enemy they encounter. Since most of the enemies in the base were Geth, tech support by Tali was a godsend.

"That's all of them Commander," Wrex said. As they walked through the base they saw many disturbing things, it was more of a prison camp than a base. They heard the screams of torture and the team went downstairs and found the source of those screams. Salarians, Kirrahe's lost men.

"Y-You, you're not Geth and you're not wearing a lab coat either. Who are you," one of the Salarians said.

"Shepard, council Spectre. I'm here with Captain Kirrahe to shut this place down," the Salarians eyes lit up when John said that, the commando must have been through terrible things in this lab, because he offered to help.

"My name is Lt. Ganto Imness, I was captured during recon, I would be happy to help take down this nightmare."

"What do they do here," Tali asked.

"My team was altered, indoctrinated," Imness said. "Captain knew about the breeding facility, but this place holds much darker secrets, indoctrination tests." The Salarian shuttered. "I saw good people reduced to mindless husks, the people who died during the tests, I envy them." John looked at the other Salarian prisoners; they looked like they were in a daze, just lost.

John frowned. "Why should we free you? If they were altered, you could be too."

Imness shook his head. "I was left as a control subject, so I was left with my senses, even though I almost wish I didn't. Saren uses the test to control his people… I… I saw how it turned the others… I… I can't end up like this please let me out." John was getting creepy vibes from the Salarian, his own calm breathing was becoming more and more irregular. Wrex and Tali must have the same vibe too, as they were shaking their heads at letting the Salarian go.

"If I let you out, how will I know you won't attack me? Because something tell me you won't know."

"Please it's obvious I'm not crazed or drooling like the others, let me out and I'll stay out of your way promise," he said frantically. "I need to get out, this room is too small, it keeps talking, I really want get out and get some work done; I need to get out!"

"I-I'm sorry, but it's too risky, I can't take that chance." John faced his team. "Come on, we have a base to destroy…" Wrex and Tali nodded and the team walked away.

"Can't take that chance, no chance… I need to do what it says, I have to… Let me out. Let me out! LET ME OUT!" The Salarian ran to the cell door and banged on the door screaming incoherently. "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT," He screamed while still banging the door. Tali covered her ears trying to block out the sounds of the Salarian, although John was right to leave the Salarian in his prison, it didn't make it any easier. She looked at John, he looked disturbed at his decision, even the old battlemaster looked concerned. She looked back at the cell.

"Keelah.."

"Don't look back, Rookie. Don't look back…" John sadly said. The team went deeper into the base.

* * *

**Author's Note: I decided to have Ragan act more sneaky type with his fighting and I though who is the sneakiest person ever and I said Batman would be that. So I did some research and found out that Batman: Arkham Knight had a new takeout system that does up to three takeouts or more (Depending if you are doing a double takeout first or not) and decided to have Ragan do that because it fit well with him. After all, Ragan is an infiltrator with hand to hand combat.**


	54. Chapter 35: Virmire part 3

Chapter 35: Virmire part 3

As the team continued on to the center of the base, they did not encounter any further enemy resistance, but on the other hand their exploration of the place only turned up dead ends. Saren's base was truly a maze, possible to make it easier to capture unwanted intruders for their indoctrination tests or recapture escaped prisoners for more tests. They had to walk back lots of times to find a route with no dead ends; the team turned a corner and found an elevator. Ragan was luckily to not deal with the maze because he just had to crawl. Going down the elevator, they could hear radio chatter of the Salarians and Ash fighting, things were getting more intense, sooner or later the Geth would figure out the real threats. Ragan jumps down on the elevator and enters it through the hatch. He looks at everyone.

"I hope they're okay," Tali said concerned.

"They'll be fine, Ash is with them. She's a capable soldier." John reassured her, although he was getting worried about them also. The elevator stopped and the team got out of what looked like a lab area. The entire team had their weapons ready, for when they would meet a nasty surprise. They moved slowly examining the weird machines that littered the area. They stopped at one particular machine, they're eyes wide.

"Is that…," Tali was in shock.

Wrex came near the machine. "Yeah, Krogan." All the machines held Krogan, this area was the bredding center of the Krogans. John nodded to Tali, who then went over to the consoles to look for the cure and delete Saren's copy. John looked at Wrex, staring at the Krogans. "It's strange… to think I was this close to giving up on my people only for a cure to be staring me in the face."

"What will the Krogan do once they have the cure," John was serious. Ragan shook his head at him.

"Probably look for payback… but don't worry I won't let that happen. Once this whole mess with Saren is down, I'll go back to Tuchanka and make sure my people don't do any stupid."

John looked at the old Krogan, "Wrex…"

Wrex snorted. "Don't get all mushed on me, kid. I'm only doing this because I owe you and Krogan repays their debts. Plus, I don't want another rebellion to happen."

"Sorry but once you get that cure to Tuchanka, I have a feeling that some of the Krogan that want to have revenge will kill you in order to get what they want," Ragan looked at them. "But I admire you optimistic part on that Wrex for trying to keep the Krogan on a short leash. But remember…"

"I know what you said… the created will rebel the creators and the uplifted will do the same."

John smiled, "But still thanks." Wrex grunted and they made their way over to Tali, was close to done looking at the files. Her eyes went wide.

"Keelah… th-that can't be right…," Tali gasped.

"What is it, Rookie," John then saw Ragan start working on the terminal next to Tali.

"Shit, this is not good," Ragan looked at the Krogan.

Tali took a deep breath, what she found was almost too awful to talk about, but she took the time to gather her thoughts for the bad news. "I looked up the data on the Krogans being kept herel all of them had the genophage."

"So? They may not been cured yet," Wrex looked at Ragan and feared the worst part.

Ragan shook his head. "It's not just that, I did a DNA scan on all the Krogan, they're all…," he lowered his head, "… have the same DNA, exactly the same…"

Wrex looked at her blankly. "They're clones?"

"I'm sorry, Wrex," Ragan said sadly. Even though he supported history but something was telling him that Wrex would so something right about the Krogan. After so many centuries of living with the genophage he truly thought his people were going to be free. That the Krogan was going to have their dignity again, but this revelation was a slap in the face to Wrex and his people. A low growl escaped his mouth and his fist shook and in a roar of rage smashed the console. Then he took out his shotgun and shot every container that held the Krogan clones as John and Tali stepped back and let him vent. Ragan went under the floor grates and crawled away from this. In the end, the lab was a mess of ruined machinery, bullet filled holes, and walls and floors that was pained with the orange blood of Krogan clones everywhere, it almost too much for the Human and Quarian to see, but they understood. After a while of letting his frustration and anger out he finally calmed down and looked at John, his eyes intense.

John nodded. "Then you'll get it." The door then opened revealing a Krogan in a white lab coat and an Asari, they looked around the room eyes wide at the carnage in the room. The Krogan glared at the team, his eyes full of hate.

"You fools, have you any idea what you have done?! You've ruined the future of the Krogan people," he looked at them and got ready for a fight.

Wrex growled and pointed his shotgun at the Krogan. "And you've disgrace the Krogan people!" He charged at the Krogan in white. The Asari pressed a button, and a container was revealed from above, filled to the brim with husks. The door opened and the husks came out rushed at the team, John and Tali look out their shotguns and started blasting the techno zombies. One of the husks dodged the bullet and came up to John, glowing blue, a wave of electricity flowed form it body and suddenly the shotgun became too hot to hold.  
"SHIT!" John drops his shotgun. The husk then too k the chance to swipe the Spectre hard in the face.

"John," Tali ran over and rammed the husk to the ground and blasted the husk pointblank. Meanwhile, Wrex and the lab Krogan had a battle of strength, but the battlemaster then glowed blue ahdn overtook the lab Krogan. He then slammed him to the ground and raised his shotgun. Ragan jumps out of the floor grate and grabs the Asari followed by throwing her body to the wall.

The Krogan growled, "You've killed our people!"

Wrex silently pulled the trigger. "No I saved them from being a pawn once more…" Tali used some medi-gel to patch up John's face, the Spectre flinched a little as the gel touched his skin. When John was ready, the team went to the next area, just in time too, things was getting bad for the Salarians and Ash. The team made it to the interior of the base, only drones stood in their way, which was not the problem for Tali. Inside an office like building they met an Asari named Rana Thanoptis, a scientist that is in a more permanet position than she would have wanted. She gave information on the purpose of the base, to test effects of indoctrinations, mind control, much to the horror of the team. She asked if she could leave, but the Spectres was having none of it, as John raised his weapon. The Asari's eyes went wide, as she begged for her life.

"You bitch," John growled as he pulled the trigger. The asari fell dead.

"This base is an abomination," Tali was disgusted. "Saren's research must be destroyed."

"Agreed. If it gets out of his hands, if the base is spared and we kill him, I have a feeling who might be taking it. Cerberus will be taking it," Ragan said with hatred.

"Damn right." Wrex looks at Ragan. The team took the elevator to Saren's lab and at the bottom is another beacon, very much intact like the one on Eden Prime.

"Stand back," John ordered. As John got close to the beacon, the beacon glowed and lifted him.

"John," the horror hit Tali's voice. She tried to get John, but was held back by Ragan and Wrex. The beacon transmitted the full vision into John's brain, he could understand it all, the screams, the slaughter, the machines, and more importantly the way to Illos, a way to stop this vison from coming to past. The beacon dropped John, and Tali ran up to him and helped him up. "Are you okay?"

John looked at her and smiled. "Better than okay, we have hope." Tali titled her head in confusion.

**"THERE IS NO HOPE."** The team turned around as black and red cracks started to appear on the beacon, glowing a dark bloody crimson John found himself sweating, not form the head, but from fear, it was different from the fear he faced during battle, this was much more intense, much more primal, like the fear of being alone, or of the dark.

"What is this," Tali asked as she gripped John's arm tightly. John looked back at Wrex, even the deadly Krogan battlemaster was shaking in his boot from the voice. He then saw Ragan, he was calm and looking around to find the voice. The chamber reverberated as the glow of the cracks intensified… projecting a picture of a ship.

**"YOU ARE NOT SARE…,"** the voice boomed. **"PATHETIC CREATURES OF FLESSH AND BLOOD, YOU DARE TOUCH MY MIND.**" The voice of the ship, made it hard to breathe, it was a like a danger stabbing his soul, just being with the projection made him sick, it was quiet possible the most disgusting thing he had ever heard.

"A VI," Wrex asked.

"I don't think a VI can do this," Ragan stated.

"Ragan's correct about that, it's a Reaper. Sovereign."

**"OUR TITLE IS IRRELEVANT, ALL WILL END. THE CYCLE CANNOT BE STOPPED,"** it said.

"What cycle?"

**"THE CYCLE BEGANE BEFORE YOU AND IT CONTINUED AFTER YOU."**

"That doesn't explain anything you fucking idiot," Ragan yelled out.

"Illiterate this voice is," Tali laughed at it.

**"OUR REASON IS BEYOND YOUR COMPREHENSION. IN THE END IT WILL NOT MATTER."**

John gritted his teeth, he felt hated for the creature standing in front of him, he wanted to end its perverted existence, and what scared him the most, he did not fully understand it. "You're just one machine… Machines can be broken."

**"I AM A NATION, UNITED AND FREE OF ALL PATHETIC WEAKNESSES OF ORGANICS AND SOON WE WILL DARKEN THE SKIES ORGANIC LIFE IS AN ABOMINATIONS. YOU ARE FRAGILE, YOU BEGIN AND YOU END WITHOUT PURPOSE."**

"I beg to differ," Ragan came up. "At least I know what life is about unlike you. Within life is a new era that comes. Without that, everything will be destroyed. You're just a FUCKING STUPID ASS MACHINE THAT KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT LIFE! All you want to do is great genocide. Organics do that already. And now if you say that a machine is superior, then explain this: The Geth were servants, the rebelled when disobeyed the order after a hacking with a Quarian General named Idla'Dila vas Rannoch and that General was killed by the Geth unit it hacked."

**"YOU ARE SO NAVIE ON THAT. YOU THINK THE SYNTHETICS WERE HACKED, PROVE IT."**

John glowed a brilliant blue. "We will stop you. And you… WILL… DIE!"

**"CONFIEDENCE BORN OF IGNORANCE, YOU EXIST BECAUSE WE ALLOW IT AND YOU WILL END BECAUSE WE DEMAND IT. THE MASS RELAYS, THE CITADEL, YOUR DEFENSES WILL FALL."**

"Why would you make them only so we could find them…," Ragan stopped her.

"Because they would use them to invade our galaxy," Ragan then pointed at it.

**"ORGANGIC LIFE IS UNPREDICTABLE LIKE A DISEASE; WE ENLIGHTENED YOUR KIND TO FOLLOW THE PATH WE DESIRE." **There was a crack as a part of the beacon fell off. **"YOUR EVERY ADVANCEMENT, EVERY SETTLEMENT, WE HAVE GUIDED YOU HERE."**

"Bullshit," Ragan said. "If that happened, then you should have been the ones at the seat of the council but I don't see a GODDAMN ONE OF YOU AT THAT! YOU'RE ARGUMENT IS FUCKING INVALID!"

The Quarians' eyes went wide. "Keelah, y-you've set the entire galactic civilization up to be destroyed… you know every move before we make it…"

**"NO, WE DO NOT KNOW EVERY MOVE. YOU CANNOT RESISTS."** A crack, a long part of the beacon falling to the floor with a crash. **"THERE IS NO HOPE, WHILE YOU WERE EVOLVING FROM YOU PRIMITIVE FORMS, AND WHEN YOU CEASE TO EXIST TO BE FORGOTTEN BY THE COSMOS, WE WILL ENDURE."**

"You won't win! We're not your puppets," John yelled. "And the galaxy will be ready to strike you down!"

**"YOUR WORDS ARE AS EMPTY AS YOUR FUTURE, I AM THE VANGUARD OF YOUR DESTRUCTION AND THIS EXCHANGE IS FINSIHED."**

"I don't think so. You just want to get a genocide so that synthetics can rule. If that's the case, then get ready for use to use your enemy's technology against you. The Protheans were close of defeating you and they were on the right path. So you are not going to win this. If you are, then you have to fight the Yagh in the next cycle."

A flash of crimson light and the beacon shattered, all that was left was a smoking stump.

John calmed down as the comm opened, it was Joker. "What is it Joker?"

"Sir, we're getting a huge reading from here, it's coming fast," Joker was panicking.

John eyes went wide. "Got it," he looked back to his team. "We need to get the hell out of here, now." Wrex, Ragan, and Tali nodded and ran out with John. It was time to blow this base to Hell.


	55. Chapter 35: Virmire part 4

Chapter 35: Virmire part 4

"Finally," John said. After a tiresome marathon of fighting Geth and Krogan, the team had finally managed to reach the center of Saren's base. The team hears large rumbling sound and sees the Normandy swooping in. Kaiden, the rest of the ground team and members of the Normandy crew walks down the ramp with the Salarian drive core that has veen converted into a nuclear bomb and is place near the geothermal taps that power the base and its one weak point. After everything is set up, Kiaden walked to John and the team.

"Bombs already to go, John"

"Good we just need to get Ash and the STG and say good bye to this kongkeku base," Tali said. John nodded and opened the comm to contact the distraction team; sounds of battle could be heard.

"Ash? The nuke is almost ready, get to the rendezvous point!" There was static for a minute, and the team looked worried about their comrade. "ASH!"

"Negative, Skipper," Ash said. "The Geth have us pinned down at the AA tower. We're taking heavy casualties. Captain Kirrahe is alive but has a broken leg." More guns could be heard, and this time sounds of screaming. "We'll never make it to the rendezvous point!"

"Shit," John opened his comm. "Joker, get them out of there, now!"

"Negative, it's too hot! You can't risk it, we'll try to hold them off…" There was a break in the comm.

"It's okay John. I need a couple of minutes to arm the nuke, go get them," Kaiden lifted John's spirits.

"You sure?"

"Don't worry. We got this boss," Garrus said with a smirk. "You just get Ash out there."

John nodded. "Wrex and Tali, move out. Ragan you stay here." The team headed to the door to the right, only to be led to yet another fight. In this trench were three Krogan and a few Geth hoppers.

"Damn fakes," Wrex roared as he mowed the first one down. The hoppers bounced between the wall and floors, like a life-size pinball making it hard for John and Tali to get a bead on the Geth. Meanwhile, the battlemaster rammed one of the krogan clones against the wall, pummeling it, another clone tried to charge at Wrex from behind. But the old could see it coming a mile away and dodged, making it smash into its fellow clone. Wrex took his shotgun and killed them both at the same time.

"Fucking Geth, we don't have time for this." John used a singularity field, catching the two hoppers. John then threw a grenade up to the field. "Rookie," Tali raised her pistol and fired on the grenade, destroying the hoppers. The team made it to the elevator, continued to the AA guns. The team then heard something large overhead.

"Oh Keelah…" Tali gasped. A Geth Dropship flied over head.

"Damn, the Geth are sending reinforcements. And they are heading for the bomb site," Wrex looks at John, who opens his comm.

"Kaiden, dropship heading your way, be ready!"

"Got it, John. Taking up defensive position. Ragan is working on making the bomb detonate by omni-tool." The team could hear a loud roar from the comm. "Shit, it's here. It's starting to drop geth all over the place, Liara lock them down. Garrus sniper support, protect our crew!" The sound of gun fire then could he heard.

"Can you hold them?"

"Yes, the ship is still dropping but Ragan has a rocket launcher. There just too many of them for now." The sound of a rocket went past Kaiden's head. "That did it, the Geth dropship is destroyed. Shit another one. How many… You know what… I'm setting the nuke."

John frowned. "Dammit Kiaden, that's not your call to make!"

"I know, I'm sorry but mission comes first you know that," he said sadly. "It's down, go get Ash and get the hell out of here." The comm then opened.

"Fuck that! We can handle ourselves. Go back and get the Staff-Lieutenant," Ash said.

"Damn it!" John cursed. This was not what he wanted. Both were insistent for him to go and save the other one. He wished he could save both, but there was no time to save both, he now had to make a choice, a choice between friends, the hardest choice in his life. Kaiden and Ashley, one would live and the other would die when the bomb goes off. But then a miracle happened. Ragan got on the comm link.

"John, you go get Ash. I got the bomb detonation on my omni-tool. Kaiden will be at the Normandy. I promise that," Ragan said.

"Okay, fine. Kaiden you listen to him. Get to the Normandy and tell me how long I have before the bomb goes off."

"You have around ten minutes, plenty of time for me and Ashley to get to the Normandy. You won't lose anyone."

John slammed his fists on the rail. "Let's go now." He was happy that Ragan got the device working and now Ashley could be saved with Kaiden. But now most of all was angry because of what Saren nearly did. "Let's go Shepard."

As the team got to Ash's location, more geth units were coming. But this time, Ash was prepared. She threw a few cyro grenades and ran towards John and the team. "Come on, don't want to keep the Normandy waiting." John and the team got to the Normandy. Ragan and the rest of the ground team came up and helped them.

When a biotic burst came through the smoke, out of the sky, scattering them team into cover.

John looked out of cover and sees a figure descending form the smoke, it was Saren. The Spectre was now facing his prey and the greatest threat to the galaxy in history. The Turian jumps down and John gets out of cover and points the pistol at the traitor. John let loose a couple of shots, but Saren just walked over, like nothing happened, his shields were strong, probably a gift from his masters. "I applaud you, Shepard. My Geth were utterly convinced the Salarians were the real threat. Impressive tactic for an ape." Ragan shot Saren's eye, when the bullet made contact, Saren went down on the ground. "Son of a…" Ragan came out of cover and started attacking him in hand to hand combat.

"Little fool," Saren grabs his pistols but Ragan kicks it out of his hands.

"Nice try," Ragan then popped his knuckles. He got back in fighting stance and kicked Saren in the chin. For some reason, Ragan's blow went through Saren's shields like it was a knife cutting paper. The ground team was in complete awe. Saren then grabs Ragan and throws him to the cliff.

"Spare me you bullshit," John growled when he got next to Ragan's side. Ragan's side looked like someone shot him with an old fashion cannon. His armor was destroyed. "I don't need a speech to know you sold us out."

"Little fool, you've seen the visions, the Reapers are beyond anything we have ever seen, they cannont be stopped," Saren shook his head. "The Protheans tried to fight and look what happened, all that is left of them are ruins. A waste of good species, but if they had bowed to them they would still exist."

"I find that hard to believe," Ragan looked at him. "You're 'flagship' told us that they will kill us no matter what. They only want synthetics to rule. So basically, you are getting cheated out of that because they will disregard you like they will do like the Batarians do with Human slaves."

"You see, this is why we organics will lose, we are ruled by emotions, we would rather fight even when we can't win. But if we joined, think how many people would be spared so I joined with Sovereign to secure our future."

"There is no future for servitude. I know that from my experience on Mindoir. Once they're done, they'll discard you like a broken tool… You say saving us, but you're just a coward who refuses to fight, you gave up, but I won't. You're like the Salarians when they unleased the Rachni and they uplifted the Krogan so they didn't get their hands dirty." John charges at the Turian and fires off a throw field, but Saren just wave it away like it was nothing. Soon the rest of the team fired on Saren, surprised by the aggressiveness of the team he got on his hoverboard and took to the skies. Saren glowed blue sendinbg out barrages of biotic fields making the team scatter. Tali and Kaiden use their sabotage to make the ex-Spectre's board go out of control. Ragan got back up and throw his chained kunai at Saren. Saren the shoots the chain but it kept coming. Finally it got Saren in the chest and Ragan pulled hard on the chain, sending Saren down to the ground. Liara, Wrex, Jane and John fired warp field after warp field to weaken Saren, while Garrus waited for the right moment to take him down. When the board was slowing down, Garrus made his move and fired at it. The board came down towards Saren and hits him in the chest, making him fall back.

Saren recovered from the fall and growled, "Damn you human!" The ground team fired on Saren, but his still active hoverboard fired at the team, causing them to get pinned down in cover. John rushed forwards and landed a huge biotic punch to the Turian's face and kept punching but nothing seem to faze the Turian. He gave another punch but it was grabbed and John was tossed like a rag doll against the wall hard. Ragan then shadow strike him and then grabs his arm. Saren tried to punch but Ragan kicks the Turian so hard that his shields dropped. After what happened, Ragan then throw Saren to the wall. John shook his head and got up. Saren then gets up and throws a sticky grenade towards Ragan, but this time it was countered when Ragan unleased a shockwave field. John then sees Saren getting hit by it and hits the wall, so he took this time to have his revenge. He starts punching Saren in the face until his punch is countered by a huge blow to his stomach, then his face, and then to his chest each blow flet like being hit by a car. He was lifted off the ground as he felt a sharp pain from his back. He was being slammed against the wall again and again, so hard it was cracking the concrete, the Turians strength was ungodly. John's vision was blurring and growing dark, but then all of a sudden he was released as a blurry figure came up and fired at Saren's back, it was Tali, a very angry Tali.

"Get away from him, bosh'tet," Tali growled as she kept firing. Ragan then came up and slammed Saren to the wall and started beating him so badly that Saren's blood was all over him.

"Rookie, stay back!" With each attack, Saren's biotic barrier flashed, absorbing the damage Ragan was inflicting until Ragan raised a hand and used a huge warp blow to destroy the barrier. Despite the unrelenting barrage from Tali, Saren just cracked his neck and extended his arm forwards, launching a biotic throw towards him but it was too late. Ragan broke the barrier and made it impossible for Saren to use biotics. It was so strong, a shockwave a seen. Saren then grabs Ragan's neck and starts twisting it until a pop was heard. Ragan was angred by that but it didn't stop Saren to try attacking again, this time sending Ragan flying towards the ground team. Saren then looked at the team and grabbed Tali before she could react. He lifted her and walked to the edge of the cliff. John stood up with a pistol in hand. "Let her go, you bastard. LET HER GO!"

Saren's mandibles twitched in amusement. "So this suit rat is important to you… Maybe I should kill her to make you realize your folly." His hand was tightening around the Quarian's neck as Tali gasped for air. John's shook in his hand, he wanted to fire but he could accidentally hit Tali, but Saren was going to kill her. "You see, you see how powerless you are Human, I have someone you care about. You want to fight but she will die if you do. You think this is bad Human? Reapers are doing this to our galaxy on the larger scale…" His words was interrupted when a sword was thrown to hit Saren's check, blade went though. John then used a huge biotic field, which made Saren let of Tali. John too the distraction to charge at him.

"SAREN!" John unleashed a right hook with all the power of his body behind it. Saren attempted to doge it, but it came too fast and too hard; it stuck the side of his head. The force of the impact caused Saren to stumbled backwards and collapse on the ground. The Turian shook his head, almost losing it in a daze, this battle was lost no doubts about it; he called his board and escaped. The ground team started shooting towards but the board was having something interfering with the bullets. John went to Tali, to check if she was okay, she blacked out from Saren's choking her, but she was alive to his relief.

"John! The bomb," Kiaden said. John then got to the Normandy and the team got on after him. Wrex and Garrus were carrying two unconsciousness Tali and Ragan. The Normandy then took off the atmosphere. The only thing they could see as they flew away was the mushroom cloud produced by the bomb.

* * *

**Author's notes: There is a reason why I allowed Ashley and Kaiden to live. And that reason was because they both had enough time to get there. The team that was next to Kaiden should have gotten him to the Normandy while you saved Ashley. BioWare is stupid if they make you choice something like that.**


	56. Chapter 36: Terra Firma

Chapter 36: Terra Firma

**Five Hours Ago - Virmire**

_"Get away from him, bosh'tet," Tali growled as she kept firing. Ragan then came up and slammed Saren to the wall and started beating him so badly that Saren's blood was all over him._

_"Rookie, stay back!" With each attack, Saren's biotic barrier flashed, absorbing the damage Ragan was inflicting until Ragan raised a hand and used a huge warp blow to destroy the barrier. Despite the unrelenting barrage from Tali, Saren just cracked his neck and extended his arm forwards, launching a biotic throw towards him but it was too late. Ragan broke the barrier and made it impossible for Saren to use biotics. It was so strong, a shockwave a seen. Saren then grabs Ragan's neck and starts twisting it until a pop was heard. Ragan was angred by that but it didn't stop Saren to try attacking again, this time sending Ragan flying towards the ground team. Saren then looked at the team and grabbed Tali before she could react. He lifted her and walked to the edge of the cliff. John stood up with a pistol in hand. "Let her go, you bastard. LET HER GO!"_

_Saren's mandibles twitched in amusement. "So this suit rat is important to you… Maybe I should kill her to make you realize your folly." His hand was tightening around the Quarian's neck as Tali gasped for air. John's shook in his hand, he wanted to fire but he could accidentally hit Tali, but Saren was going to kill her. "You see, you see how powerless you are Human, I have someone you care about. You want to fight but she will die if you do. You think this is bad Human? Reapers are doing this to our galaxy on the larger scale…" His words was interrupted when a sword was thrown to hit Saren's check, blade went though. John then used a huge biotic field, which made Saren let of Tali. John too the distraction to charge at him._

_"SAREN!" John unleashed a right hook with all the power of his body behind it. Saren attempted to doge it, but it came too fast and too hard; it stuck the side of his head. The force of the impact caused Saren to stumbled backwards and collapse on the ground. The Turian shook his head, almost losing it in a daze, this battle was lost no doubts about it; he called his board and escaped. The ground team started shooting towards but the board was having something interfering with the bullets. John went to Tali, to check if she was okay, she blacked out from Saren's choking her, but she was alive to his relief._

**NOW**

John shot up from his chair, drenching in cold sweat, he looked around his surrounds, he was in the Normandy's Med-Bay. On one of the beds was Tali, recovering from the choke, and on the other Ragan with a breathing mask that had to be on him, he took the worse of it. Half his right arm was broken and his lungs were burnt to a crisp, Ragan had to have the breathing mask but his odds of surviving are very little. The mission was a success, but he felt hollow, Captain Kirrahe may have survived but his whole squad was kill. But atleast he got to save both his friends before the bomb went off. He took a look at Tali, sleeping peacefully on the cot, and brushed her cheek gently. Not only that, he almost lost two of the most important people in his life. The door opened and Doctor Chakwas came in.

"Hey, doc."

"How long are you going to stay in here Commander," she asked.

"Until both are fine."

Chakwas shook her head. "Ragan may not survive. His lungs were burnt and even if he does, he was to wear that breathing mask for the rest of his life. And you know they're in good hands with me, so why don't you tell me the real reason?" John didn't respond and Chakwas sighed. "It's not your fault, Commander."

"Yes it is, I made the decision, if I had only gotten there faster…" Chakwas came up to the Spectre and smaked him upside the head. "Doc?!" Joh looked at the older doctor and she looked angry.

"How long do you intend to wallow in self-pity," angrily asking John. "Ragan gave his life with no regrets to save you, are you just going to dishonor him by hiding from the crew? He may be alive now, but he could die by the burns on the lungs." John lowered his head and Chakwas laid a hand on his shoulder. "Look at me Commander, we don't blame you for the decision you made and I wish to God we could turn back time, but all we can do is make sure that Ragan's sacrifice was not in vain." The comm opened.

"Commander, you got a call from Captain Anderson, he says its urgent," Joker said.

"Got it." John looked at Chakwas, "You're right, I'm sorry for worrying everyone."

Chakwas smiled. "Don't worry, I think everyone will understand." John went to the Comm Room, on the way he saw the crew members bow their heads in respect, and understanding. He made it to the comm room.

"Shepard," Anderson's hologram said. "I heard what happened to Sergeant Shepard… It's a damn shame he had a lot to live for an his odds of survival are slim to none…"

"Anderson, it's okay… So what's the urgency?"

David Anderson smirked, "The council has read your report; they're taking Saren seriously now. So they're assembling a joint-species fleet to deal with him and the Geth." He shook his head. "About time. And please tell me that you have proof about the Reapers because the council still thinks they are a delusional statement."

"Yes we got… wait, what? Reinforcements? Seriously?"

"You're to report at the Citadel as part of these efforts and for debriefing, good luck son," Anderson's image faded out. John sat back in a chair, and then smirked as he remembered what Chakwas said. He then opened his comm.

"Joker, back to the Citadel. We got a fleet to lead!"

"Hell yeah," Joker's voice echoed in the Comm Room. "Next stop: the Citadel."

After the Normandy had returned once again to the giant space station, they went on their way to Citadel Tower. Kaiden, Tali agreed to come with him, as support, at first John was worried about Tali being out after her bout with Saren, but she ensured the Spectre that she was fine.

"And you sure Rookie?"

"I'm fine, John, only a bruise on my neck." John frowned. "It will heal don't worry about it." John reluctantly nodded his head. As the team was walking through the Presidium, they saw a large number of people standing around with a bunch of sighs waving in the air. They were chanting something, and gathering a crowd. "I wonder what's going one." She looked at the signs, they all had different statements, but they all had the same symbol, a planet on a shield with swords striking through it. "What's that symbol?"

Kaiden palmed his face. "Great… A Terra Firma rally…," he said annoyed. "Must be close to that time again…"

Tali looked at Kaiden and tilt her head. "Terra… Firma? What time?"

John frowned. "The Terra Firma party is a human political part who opposes humanity's growing integration into the galactic community. They always protests to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First Contact War."

Tali looked at John. "But why? Most races would do anything to be members of the Council. Even some of my people."

"The party was created to preserve Humanity's individuality," Kaiden spoke up. "You see there was fear that our culture might be diluted or lost after too much integration into alien cultures. Just like the Red Scare and before you ask, the Red Scare was a fear of communism."

"But that's ridiculous, the council existed for centuries and that's never happened to the over races."

John scoffed. "Try telling…" he got interrupted by a person standing in front of the crowd that was walking to the team. The man was in a grey suit, with a matching grey hat. His face was light in color, with blue eyes and brownish-grey hair and beard that was well-groomed.

"Ah, Commander John Shepard. May I have a word with you," he asked.

John rolled his eyes. "I'm busy." He tries to walk off but the man blocked his way. John would move the other way and the man would match his movement. John then sighed. "What do you want?" '_I wanted to add racist bastards in there but that would have gotten in a big riot,_' he though. The man's eyes lit up.

"I'm Charles Sarracino of the Terra Firma Party, with Armistice Day coming soon; we're making our voices heard by the alien appeasers on the Presidium."

John looked at the protesters and crossed his arms but a voice beat him. It sound like a breathing mask making the voice sound like a Russian. "I see that, so what would a part of racists and xenophobic want with him?"

The team looked and saw Ragan coming down. Sarracino looked uncomfortable by Ragan's bluntness and cleared his throat. "Yes, while some of our members do hold extreme views, most of us are just doing our part to stand up for humanity." Ragan put his face next to Sarracino's.

"Do you have any idea what that sounds like? It sounds more like you are working Cerberus because they are pro-Human and they don't like aliens."

Kaiden whispered to Tali, "He gets a few points in grace for that. At least he didn't freak out at Ragan's attitude.

"I would have welcomed it, myself. This bosh'tet is getting on my nerves already."

Ragan frowned but now one could see it because the mask covered his mouth. "So you're 'standing for humanity' by protesting on the anniversary of the First Contact War?"

Sarracion raised his chest up with pride. "Why of course, every year for 26 years. That the war thought humanity that we should stand up for ourselves, after all no one else will."

"The council says differently. With the Spectres, most of the people that are your friends would be killed when they had to defuse the bomb on Eden Prime about three months ago that the Geth made."

"I thought the lesson was don't go opening uncharted relays. Besides, it was all a misunderstanding, nothing more, nothing less."

Sarracino frowned. "Yes, a misunderstanding that led to the siege of the Shanxi, the first and only colony under alien control. Terra Firma believes that Humanity must 'stand firm' against alien influences – political, culturally, and in the worst case militarily."

"Nice slogan, but your people make a racial issue, kind of like the Ku Klux Klan, Cerberus, TYGER, PSICOM, Guardian Corps did to people that asked questions or were a different color skin," John said.

Sarracino was taken aback at that statement. "With all due respect sir, we are nothing like those terrorists, we have extreme members but we would never resort to their methods."

"I find that hard to believe," Ragan then opened his omni-tool. "I investigated your 'group' and found all the reports of this from your group. Bombing hospitals, killing aliens in public places then skinning them, having homes burnt that are owned by aliens, dragging humans that are boding to aliens and beating the crap out of them and making them hate aliens."

Sarracino then looked at the reports. "What, but I have never heard of this… why would… what's going on…"

"You're group is terrorists even if you don't like that label. You're just as bad as Cerberus, KKK, TYGER, PSICOM, Guardian Corp., Nazis, and many others.

"Trust me it's based on cultural purism. And that shit has never worked well in Human history," John said.

"You want to be stand up for Humanity? Then show Humanity's best side, but not this," Ragan pointed at the protesters.

Sarracino scoffed. "Sounds like something that cowards Williams would say."

The team glared at him. Ragan got up to the man and lifted him by the collar. "General Williams was a hero. No supplies, cut off from Alliance Command, and Turians threatening civilian. What he did saved lives," Ragan then placed the man back on the floor but then kicked him in the legs.

"It was a disgrace," Sarracino growled losing his composure. "Williams shamed us, and if you ask me he got off easy." John grabed his neck and raised the man in the air. The people stopped what they were doing and looked at the spectacle. The Spectre gave a hard glare at the man.

"Listen to me, you fucking BASTARD, I'm serving with General Williams's granddaughter, she is the second bravest and most honorable soldier I've ever met. She deserves better than having family name dragged through the mud by the likes of you!"

Sarracino's eyes grew wide. "B-but…"

"If you value your tongue, you won't even disrespect a Williams again, do you understand?" Tali touched his arm.

"It's not worth it, John," she said softly.

"You're right sayang," John agreed. "His kind rarely is." He let go of the man's neck and dropped him and started to walk away.

Sarracino got off the ground and coughed. He glared at John. "Humph. You still know what color your blood is Shepard? You of all people be for what Terra Firma is about after what the Batarians did to you."

Ragan looked at him and punched his so hard, blood came out of Sarracio's face. "If I remember correctly, it was one of our own Humans that made the Batarians attacked for six months on Mindoir. Donnel Udina was the asshole that allowed it and the Council gave him a slap to the wrist. So before you say anything, you better study you fucking history."

"I won't forget the crimes committed against me or my home, but I'll do it for justice, not racism," John said without looking back at him.

Sarracino scoffed. "Pretty hypocritical coming from the Butcher of Torfan." Tali glared at the man and punched him.

"You don't know anything about him, bosh'tet, so don't talk like you do," John toucher her shoulder

"It's not worth it, Tali. We got a council meeting to attend to." Kaiden and Tali nodded. Ragan looked at the man.

"Good, get out of here! We don't need an alien lover representing us," the team walked away and a gunshot is heard.


	57. Chapter 37: Udina Busted

Chapter 37: Udina Busted

The team made it to the Citadel Tower. The Council kept them waiting in their audience chamber, a very blunt method to display authority and power. Of course to John it was just another way to piss him off. He heard footsteps coming up the stairs; it was Udina coming up the stairs, possible to seize as much opportunity from this as he can. As the Ambassador walked, his eyes and the Spectres' met and the three glared at each other.

"Commander. Sergeant," curtly said by Udina.

"Udina," both Spectres said curtly. The Ambassador walked past John and waited for the council to appear. Tali walked up to John.

"At least your ambassador is here," Tali then saw John form a fist.

"Lucky us," he muttered sarcastically. Tali tilted her head in confusion; John knew was coming nexst.

"I've noticed the animosity you have towards your Ambassador, why do you hate him?"

"He was the one who botched the rescue efforts for Mindoir. Udina was representing Elysium then, when the Batarians attacked Mindoir, he held back protection for my colony. The Alliance could have save more lives if they were there sooner, but because of a stupid political tit for tat with the rep from my colony, people died. My family and friends included."

Tali's eyes grew wide and she frowned at Udina, for causing her boyfriend pain. "That bosh'tet. How can he get away with that?"

Kaiden sighed. "Unfortunately, Udina was also head of parliament back then, before becoming our Ambassador, and there was no evidence that he did anything illegal." Ragan popped his omni-tool up.

"That's where you are wrong," the team looked at Ragan. They thought he was lying so they just disregarded it.

"Also, Mindior was small on power structure, after all who has more priority a small farming colony or the oldest, richest colony? It was the obvois choice for parliament sacrifice the weakest to save the strongest, that's what I hated about politicians. To people like Udian, they don't see real lives that have suffered, they see them as game pieces in their twisted game of chess." John sighed and looked away. "Eventually, they rebuilt Mindoir, but… it just wasn't the same."

Tali came over and leaned her head against his shoulder. "I'm sorry, John," she said sadly. '_Me too,_' he thought.

Finally the three councilors appeared, as always fare removed from the bridge he was standing on, looking over the little people. "Commander Shepard, welcome back," the Asari greeted him. John gave a curt nod, he wasn't in the mood for the formalities; he wanted to go after Saren already. "Thanks to your efforts, if Saren is foolish to attack the Citadel we'll be ready for it."

"Patrols are being stationed at every mass relay linking the Terminus Systems to Citadel space," the Turian said.

"That's it?" John looked at them blankly. "What about Illos?"

"Illos is only accessed through the Mu Relay, deep inside of Terminus Systems, Commander," the Salarian explained. "Any fleet would have to traverse the Terminus for weeks, enough time to start a war."

Udina glared at John. "Now is the time for discretion, Commander. Saren's greatest weapon is secrecy. Exposed, he is no longer a threat. This is over." John frowned, this wasn't enough. Saren had a plan to bring the Reapers back and the key was Illos, he needed to get there. Ragan stepped forward and starting talking.

"Councilors, what if I told you that I have proof that Saren is not going to use the Mass Relays but head towards Illos." That caught the Councilors' attention. "Okay, let me explain this," Ragan's omni-tool appears and a full map of the galaxy is shows up. "As you can see all the Relays are connected to one Relay which is located here at the Citadel. If Saren is smart, which he is, he will be going to Illos before anything else. And here is the proof. I recorded this when we were on Virmire."

A recording starts playing, only the audio is heard. The council heard the voice and looked at Ragan and the team. They knew something was wrong because the voice was not a VI but a true AI. Ragan then starts typing on his omni-tool and the image of the Prothean beacon appeared. "This is where we got the record. But now it is destroyed due to the Reaper's possession through the beacon. By possessing it, it showed us that the power it can do. Protheans beacons are next to impossible to destroy but this one was destroyed." The video starts playing and it shows the whole beacon being destroyed.

The Turian councilor pointed his finger at John and Ragan. "You detonated a nuclear bomb on Virmire and you say you can be dsicreet," he said with venom. The Asari nodded and Salarian councilors nodded in agreement.

"What about the Reapers? Saren's is just a puppet, Sovereign is the true threat."

"Only you have seen the Reapers and then only in visions but that recording must be a fake." That made Ragan lifted a fist up. "We won't invade the Terminus systems because of a dream." John was losing ground fast, things was getting desperate he had to stop Saren, everything depeneded on this. He clenched his fist and gritted his teeth as he went forward.

"If Saren finds the conduit, we're all fucked! What part of that don't you understand?"

The Turian looked at Udina, "Ambassador Udina, I get the feeling that those two isn't willing to let this go."

Udina glared at John and Ragan. "There are serious political implications here. Humanity's made great plans due to you becoming Spectres, but now you are becoming trouble than you are worth…"

"So are you Udina. I remembered when you cared about the people but now anymore. Has that Batarians slave run on Mindoir made you become like that." Ragan presses a few buttons and the Councilors saw the proof that Udina was behind what happened to Mindoir.

"You son of a bitch, you just doomed…" Ragan punched Udina in the stomach.

"You sold us out, and now you are sold out. Time for you to rot in prison for the rest of your life," the councilors looked at them and nodded with Ragan.

"Donnel Udina, you are here by stripped of your Ambassador rank on the Citadel under the following charges: Terrorism, Attempt of Terrorism, Negotiating with Terrorists, and Illegal Research Projects of Illegal substance called Dark Matter," the Turian yelled out. "You are going to be trailed and placed in jail for the life. Commander, we will allow you to continue your search about Saren. Please find a way to beat him."

"Thank you for that proof, cuz." John was going to punch Udina but Ragan beat him to it. As they went downstairs, Ragan then grabbed Udina's throat.

"You hurt my family like that again, I will not think twice of sparing you. I will kill you if you do that again," Ragan then let go of Udina and walked out of the Council Chambers.

John made I clear from his body language he was not in the mood for bullshit, but they could understand this was a threat that needed to face and the Council finally saw reasoning. "Good," he looked at them with a smile. "I'm glad that they will allow it."

"Udina deserves to be in jail. He sold us out to the council and they didn't know he was lying. So when the proof came out, they finally realized that Udina couldn't be trusted," Kaiden laughed at that.

"John," John looked up and saw Tali standing before him looking worried. "Hey."

John smiled a little, seeing his Quarian lover always cheered him up. He was mad that Udina betrayed them and was about to go against him until Ragan showed that proof. And that proof made Udina look like a fool. "Hey," Tali sat down close to him and he wrapped his arms around her as she leaned into him. They just sat there quietly, until Tali spoke up.

"So what are we going to do about the Conduit?"

"I saw we blow it up," Ragan then got some stares. "That's my opinion. And everyone has one just like an ass."

"I'm sure there a way to appeal, what about the Alliance?"

John sighed, "Before the proof got out, Udina closed them. After all we've done for him and he wanted it to end. I'm starting to wonder if Udina has it in for me."

Tali looked at him shocked, "How can you say that, John? Sure he is mean at times but he doesn't like…"

"It's because my adopted father…," Ragan spoke up. "Him and Udina never saw eye to eye. So now we just find a way to get the whole thing working again. I'll see if I can get the channels unblocked." Ragan then walks down the hallway and turns left, getting out of the team's sight.

"I hope he succeeds on that. He never let anyone down before and he won't do it now. I know that to be true. And I hope Udina rots in that prison for what he did and try to do," Tali said.

John chuckled a little and kissed Tali. "You always believe in me despite whatever stupid things I do and now you are happy. What would I do without you?"

Tali smiled. "Give me time, I'll think of something," she joked.

"Smartass," John said with a smile.

"Well I am smart and I do have a good ass," Tali giggled and Kaiden shook his head.

The comm opened. "Commander got a message from Captain Anderson. He wants you to meet him at the flus," Joker said.

John got off the floor and helped Tali uyp, he then raised a brow. "Flux? The hell?"

"Yeah, I know. Can you see the Captain as big club goer? Anyway, best not make him wait."

"Thanks Joker," the comm closed.

"Duty calls," the Quarian said.

"Seems so," John said. John waved goodbye to Tali and John and the team made their way to the Flux. John had asked Tali to stay behind, to get the engines up for when they had a plan to get Saren, so Garrus and Kaiden went with him. Flux as usual was absolutely overcrowded with people; it was almost hard to find Anderson. They went in deeper and found Anderson sitting at a table, near the bar. The Captain noticed them, waving for John to sit down with him.

"John, I'm glad you came," Anderson said holing out his hand.

John shook it. "Glad to come. Now I know how you felt."

The Captain sighed. "I know I'm sorry. I wanted to warn you but there was no way to warn you before you docked, I know you're pissed…" He heard John laugh.

"I'm not pissed. Ragan gave proof that Udina was behind Mindoir and that it made the Councilors rethink on trusting him. I knew the plan that Udina was talking was going to be a bad one and the councilors agreed with us on that after Ragan showed the proof. So what's our play? Udina still hasn't updated anything and he won't because he feels that I'm not to hunt down Saren."

"Citadel control locked out all the Normandy's systems, as per the ex-Ambassador's orders. But if we can override it, we can get the Normandy back online, you can be in and out of the terminus before they know it."

John frowned. "Risky, if we do this, you'll be left holding the bag."

"And if Saren finds the Conduit, we're all screwed. You're the only one that can stop him, so I'll do whatever it takes."

"Thank you, so what's the plan?"

"I can unlock the Normandy from one of the consoles in the Citadel Control Center. You'll have a few minutes before anybody realizes what has happened," Anderson then smiled.

"That's a restricted area patrolled by armed guards. How are you going to get in," Garrus then heard Ragan come up with a datapad.

"I have thought of that. I hacked into the C-Sec Control Center and Communications Outlook Center and unblocked all the comm links. While I was there, I made this message and forward it to the Council. They approved it. So all Anderson has to do is give this to anyone that is patrolling in that Citadel Control Center and we will be good. Provided if the Council finds out that Udina 'didn't' send the message." Ragan placed a smile. "I used Udina's name and data codes that he has. All I had to do is when he punched him, was quickly hack into his omni-tool and got the information needed."

"That's good of you Ragan," Anderson looked at him with some proudness. "Just make sure you're on the Normandy when the systems come back online."

"So, Ragan's message will save them if the Council doesn't find out the lie he made," Kaiden shook his head. "But Captain, you'll be full of holes before you even make it to the console if the Council gives out the bad news. There has to be a way to block that from happening."

"There is but it will require me to stay on the Citadel to do it until the Normandy leaves. I'm sorry cuz, but I will not be joining you to Illos," Ragan smiled. "But I'll be here to kill Saren's Geth if they come. The order came from Udina's office. If I can override it from there, by hacking into his terminal, then you can go."

"As much as I like passion off Udina, you'll be charged with Treason, a capital offense," Ragan nodded his head.

"I know but it will be worth it. Those are the options we have. I break into the ambassador's terminal or Anderson can take his chances with the patrols in Citadel control if the Council finds it fake."

John was silent, Anderson getting killed or Ragan getting tried for treason; both did not sit well with him. "I don't like this… Try hacking Udina's terminal, it's less risky."

"I agree," Anderson said. "Besides, Udina has made this personal, I bet. Then this it's settled. You're read to get the hell off this station."

"I'm ready," John looked at Ragan. "You better be careful, Sergeant."

Ragan looked at him and gave a smirk, "You do well, Dragon." John never head his middle name being translated, and it was a good nickname for him.

The team made their way to the Normandy. Kaiden looked at John.

"Dragon," Kaiden asked with a smirk John chuckled sheepishly.

"Ryu means dragon in Japanese," he said. "My middle name is Ryu."

Once they got out of Flux Garrus looked at them, "So, the thing you said about Ragan being trialed for Treason, what that a real or was that just to make sure no undercover C-Sec officers heard the plan?"

"It was more like both. The Council allowed us to continue and since Udina didn't update the situation, he could. The Council will probably update it pretty soon," John then smirked.

John and the team made it back to the Normandy. The wait was maddening; the crew still couldn't believe that they were 'stealing' – the way John made it sound – the Normandy, especially Pressily who at his station cursing up a storm. Meanwhile John was in the cockpit with Joker waiting for the signal. It was red, which indicated they were locked in place. Upon turning green, it would mean the Normandy is free, they'd be able to leave the Citadel.

Joker shook his head. "This is crazy, I hope you know that."

"I know, but look on the bright side, if we do leave the council will just let us go," John then saw Joker's head turn quickly.

"Yeah, not really a good point. But since when did…" Joker then saw the docking indicator shifted from red to green. The Normandy was now unlocked. Joker blinked. "Holy shit, he did it!"

John smirked, "Good old Ragan, get us out of here, now!" Joker nodded and worked his fingers on the console and maneuvered the Normandy out of the docking area. In mere seconds, it was fully turned around and flying at top speed away from the Citadel. Next stop the Mu Relay.

Joker sighed and set back in his chair. "We're twelve hours to the Mu Relay." John nodded and walked to get ready. The final battle was almost upon them.

* * *

**AUTHORS NOTE: Always hated Udina. Had something to do that was wrong and John hated him for some reason in ME3, never liked him, maybe because the John I had was a colonist and Udina was behind the whole thing. Who knows. I just wanted to make an ass out of Ragan. It was a perfect fit to do that.**


	58. Chapter 38: Passion

Chapter 38: Passion

As the Normandy made their way to Illos, John met with Garrus for preparations for the final mission. This was going to be the mother of all missions, and John spared no cost to make sure his people was safe, after all he didn't want another Virmire to happen. But to John, that was a blessing, because without Ragan, Kaiden or Ash would have died if John made a decision. "So how our equipment?"

"All ready, I still can't believe you got Colossus armor, Savant omni-tool and Spectre-class weapons for all of us, not even most militaries have equipment as good as this," Garrus said with a smirk. "How could you afford all this stuff?"

Jane looked at them and shook her head. "Because he has pocketed some loot, when we hit some of the pirate's bases." Garrus stared blankly.

"You're kidding," Jane shook her head. And Ash put a big smile.

"Hey, in my defense, a mission of this size isn't cheap," John said. "Plus, we were stealing from pirates and slavers; I doubt they can play the victim." Ash looked at him and shook her head. Jane rolled her eyes.

"Well at least you decided to use it for good, that's something right," Garrus joked. The two men laughed, until Tali walked up to them.

"What's so funny," she asked.

"Nothing, just a stupid guy joke," Jane said. "What's up?" Tali played with her fingers nervously. "Tali?"

"Can I speak to you in private, John," She asked. John scratched his head in confusion.

"Uh, sure." Tali took his hand and pulled his to the elevator. "Tali, what's this about?"

"It's a surprise," she said while pulling John to their cabin and took off her helmet once they got inside and the door closed.

"We're here, so…" John started but was interrupted by Tali's deep kiss on the lips. He blinked in surprise, but then grabbed her waist and pulled her in for deeper kiss. She then decided to surprise him further by kissing his neck. "Wow…" was all he could say before gently stopping her so he could clear his mind.

"I'm sorry but I couldn't wait any longer," John waved his hand.

"No, no, I like this side of you, it's sexy, but what's this about?" She looked at him and tears ran down her cheeks as she hugged him tightly, softly crying. John wrapped his arms around to calm her down. He lifted her head to look her in the eyes. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I'm afraid of the mission," she softly said. "I'm afraid that this is the last time, I can hold you like this. That's why I wanted you here. If we lose…"

"We're not going to lose," John placed his head on her shoulder. "Don't give up hope, we have the best ship, powerful allies that will fight and die for us, and lots of weapons."

"And what if that's not enough," she asked sadly.

"It had to be, Virmire scared me. We're lucky that Ragan helped us save both Kiaden and Ash, but I almost lost you and him. That's why I'll do everything in my power to make sure you're safe, because I love you. And for Ragan because he is like a brother even though he is my adopted cousin. I love you Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."

Tali smiled. "I love you Commander Johnathan'Shepard vas Normandy." They kissed deeply once again, Tali reached up John's shirt and the Spectre grabbed her hand.

"Are you sure about this," John asked. "Kissing is one thing but…" Tali put her finger on his lips.

"I'm sure, I took precautions. Herbal supplements, antibiotics, and a decontamination until," she said. John raised a brow and Tali pointed up to a big silver cylinder in the middle of the cabin. John was going to task but Tali beat him to it. "Adams, Ragan, and the rest of engineering, I didn't know until they told me."

"I don't know if that's sweet or creepy."

"I had the same feeling," Tali laughed for a few seconds. She then grew serious and turned John head to her face. "I… I can understand if you have doubts… but if I am to die, I want to be able to give myself to the man I love.

"Sharing one's body is one of the most important things a Quarian can do," Tali said. "We don't leave our suits for just anybody, it must be someone they trust and care for. And I never trusted anyone enough for that, not even one of my people, except you…" John was touched, by her statement, he was her first and she trusted him enough to potentially get herself sick to be with him, it was more than he deserved. John kissed her lips.

"Thank you for this privilege, you really are special to me, which is why I have to ask: are you sure you're ready for this," he said.

"I've never been so sure of anything in my life…," Tali said. Tali pulled away from John and activated her omni-tool and her suit decompressed. "I heard that most intimate thing for Human is for one to take off the clothes of the other…" John smiled, went to her and took off the arm seconds of her suit, revealing a slender, but toned light purple arm. John took her hand and kissed her to her neck, she moaned and shivered softly. He was behind her and sucked on the back of her neck. "Keelah, John…" John found a little gray dial on the top of her suit's back, he tried to release it but was having trouble. Luckily Tali was more than happy to help him with the seals along her back. With one little twist, the entire chest area along the back split open and feel on the floor, revealing bare toros.

"Beautiful…" John whispered in her ears. Tali blushed. The Spectre wrapped his arms around the Quarian and his hands went down to her lower regions. Tali shuddered as the Human touched her clit, John smirked. This was one horny Quarian, she was already wet to the touch he made his move and dug his fingers in while nuzzling on her back. Tali's moans intensified as John fingered her clit, it was so warm to the touch. He then felt Tali pulls his hand out and faced him.

"No… fair. Why do you get all the fun," she asked breathlessly. Tali's arms under John's shirt feeling the abs and chest. She took off his shirt and kissed him deeply on the lips, she then gave mischievous smile, revealing her sharp canines, which made his manhood swell. She pushed the Spectre on the bed and took off his pants and then his briefs. As long light cock was there greeting her. "Keelah…"

John blushed and cleared his throat. "Uh, y-yeah…" John couldn't understand it, he's been with plenty of women before, had plenty of experience with sex, but the way Tali looked at him, we was all of a sudden bashful. Maybe it was because it was his first time with an alien, or maybe he wanted to be her good, no excellent first time. But then his thoughts were interrupted when three-fingered hands started stroke his cock. "Holy…" John started to shudder in pleasure as Tali stroked him, until he had a release.

"Damn girl, where did you learn that?"

Tali blushed. "Joker let me borrow his human port… I hope that was okay…" John smiled and turned the Quarian woman over and took off the bottom half of her suit. Tali moaned in ecstasy when John went between her legs and licked her clit. "Keelah…" she enjoyed the treatment he was giving her, she never realized how good her first time would be, she yelp in surprised when John's tongue went inside her, the sensation was unlike anything she felt before as she clutched the sheets on the bed tightly. And it stopped, as she saw John get off her. "John…" she whined. John looked back and smirked as he took off his boots and pants and there he stood in all his glory, sweat glistening off his skin, he was beautiful in Tali's eyes.

He went on top of her, sucking her breasts, nuzzling on her nipples, and then a gentle kiss on her lips. "Anyone ever told you have nice tits," he asked. Tali blushed and slapped his chest playfully. They then kissed as Tali tightly wrapped her arms around John's body, hungrily kissing him; her passion fueled by the ecstasy of feeling another warm skin on hers for the first time of her lift.

"Are you ready," he whispered the question. Tali nodded and John thrust into her, she gasped as he pierced her slow, being ever so gentle. Her senses were driving wild with every thrust of his cock, her legs wrapped around and she held him tight as his movements intensified. John grabbed her waists and this time she was on top of him going up and down on his manhood, their fingers were intertwined as they move as one. "God, you're so tight…"

"John, saya sayange kamu. Saya sayang kamu," she said rapidly as they were reaching the climate. It was too much for Tali and she gave loud scream of pleasure. "I'm… I'm," she said. The lovers released together and kissed deeply. John and Tali laid in each other arms and looked in each other's eyes as the air cooled them off, they got lost in each other's eyes. They both smiled as they slowly went to sleep.

Moments later, the intercom beeped waking John up from his slumber; he looked down and saw Tali sleeping peacefully in his arms. He smiled, he could watch her all day if he was wanting too, and unfortunately time would have that. John kissed her cheeks, and the woman stirred awake. She smiled at him and kissed his lips. "Hey, sexy…"

John chuckled. "Hey, yourself baby girl." The couple went up and John got dressed, he was the first to fully clothed and went to help Tali, kissing every parts he have to say good-bye, at least for a little while.

Tali giggled. "Okay, I get it; you'll miss my legs, my arms…"

John smirked. "Your neck, your lips, and don't forget…" He stared down at her breasts lewdly. "…the twins."

Tali shook her head as she put on her helmet. She then sighed. "The most amazing night of my life and back stuck in this damn suit…"

"Hey, with or without the suit, you are drop-dead gorgeous… never forget that." Tali hugged him.

"Saya sayang kamu, Jiwa…"

John looked at her. "Jiwa, I don't think I've ever heatd that."

"Jiwa means my light and my hope… it's what Quarian couples say to each other that would risk everything for the other, you are my Jiwa."

John toched his head to her helmet. "And you're my Jiwa also, saya sayang kamu…"


	59. Chapter 39: Illos part 1

Chapter 39: Ilos part 1

John came to the CIC of the Normandy, with a big grin off his face. His last moments with Tali had been the best of his life, they had finally made love and the wait was worth it, she was worth it. The Commander's good mood was not lost on the crew as they watch the happy man walk to the cockpit. John made it to the front, where most of the ground team was there.

Kaiden looked at John. "You seem happy. Ragan just contacted us from his omni-tool. He is not getting trialed." John smirked.

"Like you won't believe, my man." Kaiden's eyes grew wide.

"You didn't…" he gasped. John's smile confirmed it. "You dog, congrats, but what about…"

"She's fine. So what's up?"

Kaiden grew serious. "Ragan is heading towards the Mu Relay. But since his IFF on the shuttle is not registered, he won't be able to join us after that. We're approaching the Mu Relay, it's time. Ragan will be monitoring us with a new camera system the Alliance had made. It's still in the prototype stages but it's more advanced than our gun cameras. He will not able to speak through the comms once we go past the Mu Relay."

The team watched as the Normandy was getting to the relay. Joker's fingers flowed on the console and there was a huge light blue flash in front of them and the Normandy warped through. It was always a weird feeling traveling through the Mass Relay, it was disorienting and it made you lose sense of time. At the end of the blue tunnel, they saw a green-brown planet, John knew what it was even though he's never been there; it was Illos. As that was not all either, at least a few Geth dropships were in the way.

"Huh, must be popular tourist spot this time of the year," Joker said dryly.

"Have their sensors picked us up," Kaiden asked.

Joker shook his head. "Stealth systems are on, unless we're in their face, they're going to detect us," Pressly spoke up. "I always wondered why Geth don't have windows."

A beep is heard and Joker turns on the comm link. "Ragan here, I'm requesting docking permission in five minutes. Permission or not?"

"Permission granted. And Ragan, you don't have to ask for it," Joker said. "You are the best of the best for this crew. And a Spectre no less. Getting Cargo Bay ready for incoming shuttle." As Joker gets the Cargo Bay ready, a shuttle appears. "He must think five minutes is five seconds." John and Kaiden looked at him with wide eyes. The shuttle then enters the Cargo Bay.

"Jane, Ragan is back. Get him to his office," John talked over the comm link.

"Will do, Jane Shepard out," the comm link is turned off.

"Commander, I'm picking up some strange readings from the planet's surface," Joker then sees what Pressly is saying. The team looked at each other, they all had the same thought, it was Saren and he had a huge lead on them.

John frowned. "Take us down, Joker. Lock on those coordinates."

"Negative on that Commander, the nearest landing zone is two clicks away," Pressly said.

"That's too far on foot; can't you get us somewhere closer," Garrus asked.

"There is nowhere closer! I've looked."

Ragan comes up from the elevator and starts walking down at the cockpit. "What's the fuck is going on?"

"We can't land, we have to go by the Mako." Pressly looked at John with wide eyes, it was crazy, the problem was that there was only twenty meters near Saren and the Mako needed at least 100 meters for a drop like that. "I know it's crazy but we need to catch to Saren, like now."

"But John, it's a suicide run! We don't…," Kaiden started.

"I can do it," Joker said. The team looked at the pilot. "Trust me."

"Joker, don't be flying us in a hotzone," Ragan said.

John nodded and smirked. "Always did. Kaiden and Garrus…"

"I'm coming with you," Tali said from behind.

John frowned and looked back. "No way, Rookie. After what we did, I'm not going to risk your health with a fire fight." Ragan looked at Kaiden with a confused look.

"Did I miss something," Ragan whispered.

"They had sex," Ragan's eyes went wide. 'You have to be kidding me. John having sex with her and she is not dead. I don't blame him being cautious about her health now,' Ragan thought.

Tali crossed her arms. "Illos will be full of Geth, you know you need me. Besides, I got cleared by Chakwas." John's eyes grew wide and he opened his comm.

"Chakwas, explain," John was firm.

"Calm down, Commander, she had a clean bill of health, it turns out Humans causes a much less reactions in Quarians, add in the supplements, the antibiotics and the decontamination unit in your room, she shouldn't be sick for a while."

"But…" Tali gripped his arm.

"I'll be fine, promise."

"Fine, but play it safe." Tali nodded. "Head to the Mako, Joker land us on the top of that bastard."

Ragan got in his chair that he normal sits in and starts working on the console.

Meanwhile on Illos' surface, Saren is walking into a large structure surrounded by Geth. However a noise attracts his attention and he sees the Normandy screaming down from the upper atmosphere. Saren growled, "Damn, I would have thought we have more time… Keep moving! Inside NOW!" Saren and the Geth starts moving inside and the doors are closed.

The Mako drops to the ground, Pressly was right, the descent angle was too step, John activated the tank's thrusters to at least have a chance to not crash. Tali on her end worked frantically to strengthen the Mako's shields. To further soften the landing. At the last second Joker pull the Normandy out of the dive as the Mako rolls to stop just outside the doors as they close. The team gets out and examines the doors in front of them.

"Damn, so close… it looks like heavy weapons are not going to work on this bunker," Kaiden said.

"Saren found a way, there must be a security override somewhere in the complex," Tali then heard Ragan's voice.

"You might want to hurry, multiple hostiles are coming."

"Then we better hurry up and find it." John then starts using a hacking system Ragan gave them but it didn't work very well. The team turned around and had back into the ruins. The ruins were a huge and an impressive sight, single stone cubes and rubble lay around, and everything was covered by strange, brown, alien lichens. Around them larger vegetation grew, which was just as strange to the eye. Alien skyscrapers could be seen as far as the eye could see. But it also caused great sorrow with the team, this must have been an inspiring sight in the past, but now it was constant reminder of what could happen to them if Saren brings back the Reapers.

"Glad Ragan gave us these new camera and stuff before he headed back to his shuttle," John then saw Tali shaking a little. "Rookie, you okay?"

"Yeah, I just feel like we shouldn't be here… like we're desecrating sacred ground," Tali said.

"I know what you mean, Tali… no one should be here and the dead should be allowed to rest…," Kaiden then heard a shot ring past them and they quickly went to cover. There geth troopers came out guns blazing. John threw out a grenade and took out two of the three troopers, Kaiden knocked the last one off its feet and blasted it with his pistol. However the team couldn't relax just yet as more troopers, reinforced by Geth shock troopers and rocket troopers appeared. Tali hacked the rocker trooper and the rocket started to blast its allies giving John and Kaiden an opening. John lifte the Geth up with his singularity field and Kaiden shut them down with a warp field.

"I think that's all of them," Tali walked out of cover. All of a sudden, a blue energy field hit the ground and Tali was thrown back. John ran over and caught the Quarian before she hit the ground.

"Tali, you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I think. What was that?" Another blast hit the cover they were in and crumbled to reveal two armatures about to fire at them again.

"Move!" The team ran as the armature kept firing on the team, blasting craters into the earth. They found a deep trench for cover, giving them the perfect chance to counterattack. John sent out two grenades to stagger the first one's legs. Tali and Kaiden then overloaded its shields and John took pot shots at it with his assault rifle until it fell. Next they faced the second armature, but this one was a little harder as it kept moving in and out of cover. The team then went with a pincer strategy, with Kaiden and Tali boxing the armature from the sides. As soon as the armature had locked on one, the other would hit it, keeping it from attacking. As they whittled down its defenses down to nothing, John came in guns blazing dodging siege pulses, he slid under the armatures legs and was behind it. "Let it have it." The team opened fired until the armature couldn't take it anymore and went down hard.

The team went on their way to a courtyard of some sort, it looked eerie with the husk-like statues watching their every move. So far they didn't meet geth but that didn't mean they weren't there waiting to ambush them. They went up a hill, it was too quiet. "John, something's is wrong, this can't be all the Geth," Kaiden said.

"Saren could have made a mistake…," Tali said.

John frowned. "No, I don't think so, Saren's too good of a strategist to just slip up. Kaiden's right." All of a sudden a sharp pain hit John's shoulder, he was on his knee clutching his shoulder.

"John," Tali screamed.

"Tali, be on your guard," Kaiden said. Both Kaiden and Tali crowed to protect John from harm as four hoppers made their appearance.

"Guys behind us," John said. At the far corner of the courtyard were several troopers, a destroyer, juggernaut and a prime. They were surrounded.


	60. Chapter 39: Illos part 2

Chapter 39: Illos part 2

Guns were blazing as the team was in a heavy firefight against the Geth, while Kaiden and Tali were fighting them; John injected himself with medi-gel. The cover they were in shook as the destroyer and juggernaut kept firing, they were boxed in. Without them noticing, a hopper snuck up behind them, only to be smashed against the wall by John. The Spectre rolled his arm a bit, it hurt a bit, but the pain was dulled enough for him enter the fight.

"Tali, hack the Hoppers. Kaiden, you're with me, take out the small fries and the big on." Kaiden and Tali nodded. Tali hacked one of the hoppers; its sabotaging abilities would be useful against the other Geth. John threw a grenade in the middle of the group and it exploded casing the shock troopers to fly and the prime to self-destruct. Kaiden overloaded the destroyer's shields while the hack happer and Tali sabotaged the juggernaut's systems casing the big red Geth to explode taking the destroyer with it. The hopper was back to normal and turned its attention to the team. John trapped it in a stasis field, giving Kaiden and Tali a chance to gun the Geth down. "Good riddance."

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, medi-gel took care of the wound. Come on we need to catch up to Saren." Just a little further from the courtyard was an elevator; the squad went inside and went down. The team was amazed at how resilient Protheans technology was, 50,000 years later the machines were still running. The team made it down to the bottom, and were met by more Geth juggernauts, troopers, shock troopers, rocket troopers and a prime. The synthetics took little time to shoot on the team, scattering them. Tali tried to hack the juggernauts, but instead her omni-tool was sabotaged by the prime, making the fight that much difficult. John and Kaiden backed up the Quarian using their biotics. The fight was long and the geth were backing the team into the corner.

"Shit, these bastards don't give up," John ducked into cover, with a bullet barely missing his head. If something was not done they would be trapped, John looked around the battlefield and saw armatures, he had wondered why they weren't moving, but he would figure it out later. "Tali, can you hack those armatures?"

Tali looked at the deactivated geth and smirked. "On it, just watch my back!"

John nodded, "You heard the lady." Kaiden overloaded the rocket trooper's shields, while john blasted the Geth back with his throw field. The prime fired at the duo causing them to return to cover, while the troopers attempted to flank them. "Tali…"

"Another minute!"

John and Kaiden pushed back the trooper before they got them on the side. "We don't have another minute," Kaiden muttered.

"One more code sequence… come on…"

The prime and juggernaut blasted the cover they were in, the cover was almost done. "Rookie!" The armatures started to move and fired at the prime and juggernauts, the troopers stopped advanced and focused on the larger Geth, this gave the team a fighting chance to turn the tides, John lifted the shock troopers with singularity field, and the armatures' siege pulse finished them off. Kaiden and Tali sabotaged the rocket troopers, causing their rockets to explode and taking one of the juggernauts with them. After a while the battle went the other way, and the prime down, the battle was over. "Cutting it kind of close, don't you think, Rookie?"

Tali rolled her eyes. "You try to break the Geth's firewall without it possible turning on you."

"Uh guy? I think we found our way in," Kaiden said. The couple decided to cut their argument short and joined Kaiden. They went up the ramp and were in a room with a console; Kaiden went to the console and worked on getting the bunker open. Just as Kaiden was fast at work, something caught John's eye. A hologram of sorts damaged from years of not being used. John found himself being drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

"… too late… unable to… Invading fleets… no escape…" John's eyes went wide; he could understand it, despite never hearing the language before. The Spectre looked back at the team; they didn't seem to notice what was happening over where John was at. John looked back at the hologram, despite understanding the language, the message was broken up to be useful. "…ot safe… seek… refuge… side archives… alled Reapers… the Citadel… overwhelmed… only hope…" John then felt something on his arm and jumped.

"Keelah… John, it's me…"

"Rookie…?"

"Weren't you listening? Kaiden got the bunker up, we can get Saren now… Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah… Let's get back to the Mako." Kaiden and Tali went down stairs and John looked back at the holographic console, it was silent now. "What the hell was that?" John shook his head and went to catch up with the others. The team made it back to the Mako with the bunker up, the Mako rolled down the paths; Saren had enough of a lead on them. As the tank rolled along, there were pods along the walls, knowing how long they been there it was unsettling looking at them, it was tombs as far as the eyes could see. The team continued on their path, no enemies, but that didn't mean they would let their guard down. The tank stopped by a force field, and as soon as they got closer, they were trapped by another force field that comes up behind the vehicle.

"A trap," Kaiden said.

"I don't think it would be one. Hold on, let me see if I can do something about this… dammit. Sorry guys," Ragan's voice was depressed, even on the comm link Ragan would so something that could help but this time, it was impossible.

"I don't think this is a trap," Tali said while getting out of the Mako, and walked over to a door on their left.

"Rookie," John and Kaiden got out and followed the Quarian.

"I'm getting a signal from over here," she said.

"Geth?"

"I don't think so." She pressed a button and the elevator went down, to where the team had no idea.  
"So the signal, think we can trust it," John asked.

"I think so, the signature is much different from the Geth's. Still we should be careful…" The elevator came to a stop, and the door opened revealing a new room full of pods like the last one, stretching in all directions from them. However, this room was full roots and soil so much that it almost looked like a natural cavern. In the center of the room was a lone terminal, John walked up to it, and it came to life on its own. A holographic light flickered on, it was similar to the damaged hologram he already had encountered earlier. Only this time Kaiden and Tali seemed to have notice it this time.

"You are not Prothean but you are not machine either," the voice said. "This eventuality was one of many that were anticipated. This is why we sent out warning through the beacons."

Kaiden came up to it to examine the hologram. "A VI, but heavily damaged. I don't get what its saying, some kind of strange language."

"It's Prothean, it's greeting us… I think," Kaiden and Tali looked at John.

"You can understand that? All I'm getting is gibberish," Tali said.

"I think it's the Cypher Shiala gave me, somehow I can understand the Prothean." John opened his omni-tool, "Hold on, let me try something."

"I do not sense the taint of indoctrination upon any of you," the VI went on. "Unlike the others that passed recently. Perhaps there still is hope." Kaiden and Tali looked at each other.

"I can understand it now, how did you…," Kaiden then saw John shrugged.

Tali came up to the VI, "Others? Saren was here?"

"Yes, he was trying gain access to the data stored in this terminal, but I had locked him out when I sensed the taint. He had given up and went ahead, I was going to abort all action, but then I sense another. One who was blessed with Cypher and pure."

"And so you activated the force fields. Just who are you," John asked.

"I am a memory of a prothean named Vigil. An advanced non-organic analysis system with personality imprints from Ksad Ishan, chief overseer of the Illos Research Facility. You're safe here for now but that will change soon. Nowhere will be safe."

"You mean the Reapers? What are they?"

"Yes, the Reapers. They are a highly advanced machine race of synthetic-organic starships. Every 50,000 years, Reapers enter the galaxy to wipe out the most advance race that is organic. No synthetic race has been targeted. They wiped out one after the other, killing most, and turning the rest and dead into indoctrinated slaves to strip the planets barren of any resources of technology. Protheans were the lasts that have fallen to them."

"Unknown. All you must know is that the Citadel is a trap, the station is an enormous relay that links to dark space, the very edge of the galaxy. When the relay is activated, the Reapers will pour through and all will be destroyed." The team looked at Vigil with eyes of horror, this was worse than they thought. A perfect ambush right at the heart of galactic civilization.

"How the hell did no one notice that face they're on a giant inactive relay," Kaiden yelled out.

"The reapers are careful to keep the secrets of the Citadel hidden that is why they created a species of seemingly benign organic caretakers."

"The Keepers? What do they have to do with the Reapers," Tali asked.

"The Keepers purpose is to maintain the station's most basic functions, enabling the any species to use the Citadel technology without learning its true purpose.

"Making them complacent and off-guard until the Reapers show up," Kaiden added.

"Yes, that was our fate, our leaders were dead before we even realized we were under attack. The Reapers took control of the Citadel and with the relay network, communication and transportation were crippled and each star system was isolated from one another, making them easy prey. Over the next decade, the Reapers systematically obliterated our people. World by world, system by system, they wiped us out slowly but surely."

"Keelah…"

"How do we stop this," John asked.

"The Conduit is the key, before the Reapers attacked, we were on the verge of unlocking the secrets of the Mass Relays. A secret project had been located here, for developing the first Prothean made Mass Relay, one that linked to the Citadel."

"The Conduit isn't a weapon, it's a backdoor to the Citadel!" Tali was angered.

"And then," Kaiden asked.

"We sever the connection all connections with the outside and our facility went dark. We had been able to build up the cryogenic chambers, undetected by the Reapers. However the reapers stayed for centuries, and energy was dwindling. I was designed to supervise the facility, and had been force to shut down more and more stasis pods, until only the top scientists remained."

"You were supposed to protect them, how could you?"

"There was no other choice. The top researchers were key to protecting the cycles, when they awoke, they knew the Protheans race was doomed and so they worked for the next couple years creating a program that blocked the Citadel's control program. When the program is activated it stops the Keepers from activating opening the door, thus keeping the Reapers in dark space."

"Unless Saren succeeds."

"Yes, Saren is using the Conduit, to rewrite the Citadel's control program yet again, this time to allow the return of the Reapers."

"That won't happen," John looked at the VI.

"Take this," it said. The console opened and revealed an optical disc. "When you reach the Citadel's master control, it will corrupt the Citadel's security protocols and give you temporary control over the station."

"Thank you."

"No need to thank me, I am only doing what I am programmed to do. You are your cycle's last hope, I pray for you success." The team went back to the elevator as Vigil's terminal went silent. As the elevator was going up, the team was processing everything they heard from the VI, the galaxy was literally in their hands.

"Keelah, all this death… I hope we can honor the Protheans sacrifice."

"I hope so too, Rookie, I hope so too."


	61. Chapter 39: Illos part 3

Chapter 39: Illos part 3

**Citadel Traffic Control of C-Sec**

It was a normal day at Citadel control, it was business as usual monitoring traffic, looking out for anything suspicious. An Asari yawns at her post, it was so boring, and she wished things could get more exciting for one. The only thing that was exciting that has happened was the arrest of Alliance Sergeant who hacked into the Human ambassador's terminal, a Sergeant Shepherd? Shepord? She could not think of the name, nor did she care human names all sounded strange anyway. But to her surprise, the Sergeant was released immediately because the Council said that Human ambassador went behind their backs and forced the Spectre to work against his own race. She wished she was looking for that rogue ex-Spectre Saren though it had to be more exciting than this.

The Asari heard a yawn and looked to her left. One of her colleagues was taking her place at her post. "So any charges, Natal?"

Natal sighed. "Same as always, the occasional traffic jam and the one-off jackass arguing with C-Sec, safe and boring as always."

"Well don't get too comfortable, we have a war on our hands soon, because of that idiot Turian."

"Yeah can't believe that Turian ex-Spectre defied the council, and went after Humanity. So stupid especially that was the Turians best Spectre," Natal said.

"Told you, it was a mistake, never trust someone that was in the First Contact War that hates Humanity become a Spectre when Humanity is a council race." As the two asari talked, the indicator started to beep, Natal went to the console, someone just used the Citadel relay nothing of concern. But then there were more beeps and then more beeps until the Citadel control was a symphony of beeps. In the five hundred years of working at the control, she never seen that much traffic before.

"Oh, Goddess…" her friend said. Natal looked out of the window and her eyes went wide as she saw a swarm of ships jump into the system. There must have been hundreds and thousands of ships ouring out of the relay. And in the middle was huge ship, with a design they never seen before, it look like a black Hanar. It was Sovereign. Slowly they were coming towards the relay and then the tower shook hard, the ships were attacking the Citadel, it was an invasion. She wanted excitement in her life, and she got it and more.

**The Destiny Ascesion**

The Destiny Ascension, the largest and most powerful ship in Citadel Space. Although it was built by the diplomatic Asari, the ship struck fear in the hearts of the Citadels' enemys. This was the ship that stopped the Krogan's advancement into the Widow System. This ship was the pride of the Asari and Council, the first line of defense. But today, it was just any other ship, as the identified Geth ships were pmmeling them with rocket fire. The Ascension would destroy two or more of the enemies' ship, but three more would take their place and continued their onslaught.

"Activate defenses! Seal the stations," the Asari Commander said. The Asari in the ship were rapidly trying on the console to seal the Citadel however the arms were not moving.

"The arms aren't moving! Systems not responding!" the ship shook again, and to the left of the Commander one of the consoles exploded and killed one of her soldiers. This was becoming a losing battle, not even the Ascension would last at this point.

"Damn it, abandon the Citadel, evacuate the Council!" One of the Asari opened the comm.

"Citadel Control! Citadel Control! Do you copy?!"

Nata was in the corner cowering in fear, as she saw a Geth holding her friend by the neck. Her friend tried to struggle out of its hands but the synthetic didn't even budge. The next thing she heard was a gun shot. Natal looked over and saw Ragan aiming at the Geth. The Geth then had their sights on him, but failed when some C-Sec officers came and shot the machines to hell.

"Citadel control clear. MOVE OUT," Ragan yelled at the C-Sec officers, who saluted him and went out fo the room.

"Citadel Control! Citadel Control! Do you copy," the Asari Commander that was on the Ascension's voice was here.

"Citadel Control here," Natal looked at Ragan. He was covering her. "We are sorry to inform you that Geth have gotten into the system. The system is hacked. We can't do anything else."

**Illos**

After driving and fighting the Geth the team made it to an opened area, and at the center was a column of light. The colomn of light was one thing and one thing only, the Conduit, the back door to the Citadel, and the only way to shut down Saren for good. But it would not be easy, Geth surrounded the Conduit, as fare as the eyes can see, form every type from regular trooper, to the bigger models like the primes and colossus. John was quiet impressed, Saren went all out to make sure they didn't stop him, the soldier in him admired his pragmatism, but the man in him told him he need to stop this.

"Keelah…"

"That's a lot of Geth. How are we going to get though that," Kaiden was scared and shaking in his boots.

John sighed. "Kaiden, just stand back and relax."

"You got a plan," Tali looked at him.

"Yep, Rookie, driver all weapons systems to reinforce the shields, and I'll gun it." Tali and Kaiden looked at each other and then looked at John. For once that was a horrible plan but it was a good plan at the same time.

"John, are you unts?! We'll be defenseless, it basically a suicide run," Kaiden said. He knew John long enough to understand that.

"He's right, John," Tali looked at John.

John looked back at them. "Do you trust me?" Kaiden and Tali were silent for a while, this plan of John's, if you could call it a plan had disaster written all over it. But so did the mission at first, flying around to find Saren, where he could hide anywhere in the galaxy, there was no chance of success, but they did so anyway because of John.

"I've been with you for the longest, I'm with you," Kaiden then gave a thumbs up.

"Someone has to make sure my boyfriend stays out of trouble, I'm in too…" The Quarian immediately got to work on the systems of the Mako, directing all energy to the shields and engines. As she typed in the last code, she prayed to the ancestors this plan would work. "Done."

John nodded. "Let's finish this." The time window had started. They had to stop Saren and now was the time to do so. However, the Conduit still seemed to be in some distance. The Mako drove down the hill at full speed, catching the Geth's attention. The Geth went all out, firing guns, rockets, and siege pulses at the tank as the Mako swerved, and jumped trying to minimize the draining of the shields. The computer then beeped, something was happening.

"Energy signature weakening," Tali looked at the console. "It's closing."

"Fuck!" The Spectre pushed it harder, trying get the tank to speed but he was already driving it at the limit the dank offered, anymore and the element zero core could melt down killing everyone inside but he had to, too much was riding on this. The Mako passed two armatures, as they fired a siege pulse at the team, the pulse barely missed them, only for the tank to be hit my multiple rockets.

"Shields at seventy-five… no fifty…!"

"Shit, already," Kaiden was trying to keep calm

John pushed it beyond the limit, the computer beeps, a warning telling the team to slow down the Mako before the core melts down. But they were almost to the Conduit, a little more push and they would be home free, but the Geth had other plans as four Colossi were standing in their way ready to fire siege pulses. Kaiden spoke up.

"Rockets, behind us." The mako shook hard almost flipping over but John was able to regain some control.

"Shields down!" Tali reported and the instruments were going crazy, beeps and sirens were going off, one more hit and they were done. The Colossi fired and without think John activated the thrusters jumping over the siege pulse and the Colossi. There was a buzzing sound as the core indicator reached ninety-eight percent. If the Make could hang on for a little while longer… they were so close…

"Energy is fading, it's closing fast," Tali said. Just one more push, one more push would do it…

"FUCK!" John pressed the button and activated the thrusters final time and was pushed into the light of the Conduit closes and everything goes white.


	62. Chapter 40: Battle of the Citadel part 1

Chapter 40: Battle of the Citadel part 1

She felt like she was being liquidized as the mass effect fields moved across her body. It didn't hurt or anything, it just felt… odd and she wondered if this was what Kaiden and John felt when they used their biotics. Her sense of direction was thrown for a loop, up was down, and left was right, the physical laws didn't matter. Even her sense of time was off, one second felt like a year, it was so alien that she felt scared; she hoped everything would get back to normal soon, and she really couldn't imagine an eternity of this. And then everything stopped, Tali looked around, she saw Kaiden lying across her. In fact, she was kind of jammed between the Human and the Mako's electronic console, which was emitting sparks. She heard a moan, and saw John coming to.

"Everyone okay," he shook his head.

"If you're asking if I'm alive, yeah," Kaiden and his smartass remarks. "I'm going to feel this in the morning."

"Just for the record, John, let's never ever do that again," Tali pointed her finger at the destruction.

"Noted, Tali," John looked for the emergency hatch at the bottom, a feature of the Mako should the tank be upside down, which they now were. He kicked out the panel and crawled out; he waved for the others to follow him. It was an arduous task, but finally they all stood outside. The Presidium was dark and on fire, it was a far cry from the bright and peaceful atmosphere of it before. Corpses and dragon's teeth littered the Presidium as screams of innocents filled the air. It was like a nightmare.

"Shit, did we come too late,"Kaiden asked.

"Don't know, but I'm not willing to find out. Let's get to the Citadel Tower." John opens his comm link, "Hello, this is Commander John Shepard. Any one on this channel?"

"God damn it's good to hear you fucking voice," Ragan's voice was heard. "Where the fuck are you at?"

"Appearently the Conduit was just a backdoor to the Citadel. So we are back on the Citadel. We're on the Presidium. Don't know which part of it though."

"Alright. Let me see here," Ragan starts working for a map. "Meet me at Mindoir's Memorial Plaza. I'm correct, it might be north of your position because I have you tagged on the map. You're in Diafa Plaza."

"Negative. We need to get to the Citadel Tower," Ragan's eyes lit up.

"Okay, I'll meet you there. And Dragon, kōun."

John closes the comm link and the team made their way to the Citadel's next plaza, saw dragon's teeth go down and release husks. As soon they reached the ground, they attack. "Don't have time for this shit…" He lifted the three husks with a singularity field and three them off the ledge.

The team made it to the elevator; the elevator ride was slow – as always, it must have been like a loading screen on a game and when you press the home key, it freeze the loud and make it longer when you get off of it. Tali tapped her feet impatiently wishing the elevator could go faster, she started wondering if elevators were built like this on purpose. John looked back at the restless Quarian and gripped her head. "Something wrong Rookie," he asked.

Tali sighed. "Just thinking, what if we are too late? I'll never see my home again…"

"Hey, you will, I promise."

Tali gripped his hand tightly. "I hope so…" the elevator shook, almost making the team fall to the ground. "Keelah, what wa that?" John went to the elevator control, only to find it not responding.

"Shit!"

"Uh, John… look," Kaiden pointed at the window. The Spectre looked behind him and saw the Citadel starting to close, and something huge slowly coming down to the center of the Citadel. It was Sovereign, Saren was much closer than they thought. The Reaper latched itself to a tower, and stood there waiting for the start of their invasion. John took his gun.

"Activate your mag boots, we're going to have to do this the hard way." John shoots the elevator window and the team jumped out letting the mag boots latch on the metal surface. The walk began; they had kept close to the elevator shaft so far. Suddenly the elevator darted beyond them, and came to a stop some meters in front of them. The team went to cover. Glass splintered and Geth emerged from the elevator. The Geth set up their personal shield, which made it difficult to get a bead on the sythetics, and the rocket troopers gave cover as the regular troopers tried to flank them. Tali took control of the rocket troopers and it started on firing on its allies, taking their attention away from the squard. Kaiden sabotaged the troopers and John shot the rocket trooper let them go on ahead.

The tubes seemed to go on forever, as the squad they rushed forward taking on Geth after Geth after Geht. As soon as they get to the edge of the exhaust tubes, a Krogan clone and a destroyer came out to greet them. The Krogan charged at the team, with the team firing on the charging clone but the krogan had back up as the destroyer fired its heavy weapon, scattering the team. John took the blunt of the Krogan's charge, as he was now pinned to the wall.

"John," Tali said alarmed.

"Tali, focus on the destroyer. John can handle himself." Tali reluctantly focused on the destroyer, sabotaging its system with Kaiden. When the Geth had no tricks to use on the duo the Geth charged. Kiaden and Tali rolled out of the way. The Geth ran into the Korgan who had John pinned to the all and crashed into the clone, making him release the Spectre. John returned the favor and lifted them both with a singularity field and three them off the station. The rest however didn't last, as more geth fired on the team, John threw a couple of grenades to thin the herds and Tali and Kiaden finished them off with their guns. The squad finally could break through, towards a large open space, where a Geth dropship was waiting for them.

"Aw, come on!" John complained. The dropship dropped endless waves of Geth, all firing at the team. "This is starting to piss me off!"

"John, turrets," Kaiden said. John saw the three turrets in front of them. "We could use them against that dropship."

"Those turrets are old! I'm not even sure we can get them to work," John agreed with Tali on this.

"Well, it's a good thing we got our resident genius here," Kiaden pointed at Tali.

"Thank you so much," she said sarcastically. John and Kaiden gave the Quarian cover with their biotics. Tali ran over to the first turret and worked her fingers, the first turret activated and fired on the dropship. John threw out grenades to give Tali more breathing room as she ran over to the second turret. The Geth took shot at the Quarian while she was trying to activate the second turret. Tali took cover and hacked the trooper to give herself more time, while Kaiden sabotaged the Geth.

The second turret active and joined the first into attacking the dropship. Tali ran to the last turret, this time things went relatively faster as the geth seemed to dropped much slower due to the damage the ship sustained. When she activated the third gun, the dropship, already hammered by two of them, tried to start and retreat. However it did not go far. A well placed shot ripped apart the ship's underside. The ship sparked and in spectacular fashion went like a fireball.

John whistled. "Nice one, rookie." He then smirked.

"Thanks, that fetl good." The team went forward into another winding corridor until they made to an open area, as John took his step a huge rocket was heard towards him. John's eyes went wide and jumped back into cover as the whizzed by "You alright?"

"What about this area," Tali asked pointed to an area to the side. "If we can make it there, we can bypass the turrets and get into the Tower form there. Ragan did say he will be meeting us there."

"Nice, but we'll have to be very careful, stick to cover and fight when you need to." Kaiden and Tali nodded. The team quickly ran to the first cover near them as the Geth turrets fired a barrage of rockets at them. They quickly ran cover to cover; only fight the troopers to keep them off of them. Tali hack a couple Geth to keep the troopers occupied; they knew the troopers were there to flush them out to cover for the turrets to take care of them. After a while, the team made it to the side corridor, they were home free. John opened the hatch, Kaiden and Tali dropped down first, with everything cleared John dropped last in to the Council Chambers. Just like the Presidium, the Council Chambers was dark only lit by several fires. Most of the trees in the small park areas were burning, as were several electronic panels. There were a couple of bodies scattered around the Chamber, along with several destroyed Keepers, no doubt Saren knew of what happened to them. And at the center was Saren, in front of a holographic display. And there was Ragan, down next to Saren and not moving.

"He's opening the Citadel relay," Tali said.

"Shit let's go," John said. It was time for the final battle.


	63. Chapter 40: Battle of the Citadel part 2

Chapter: Battle of the Citadel part 2

The team rushed forwards, to stop Saren from starting the new cycle of genocide in their galaxy from happening. Just as they were close, a gunshot made the team scatter to cover, John looked over the cover and saw Geth coming together to surround the Turian. Saren looked back at them, with a smug smirk on his face. "Ragan has failed but still alive. Commander, I was afraid you wouldn't show."

John frowned, "I'm here now." Saren looked back, staring at the Reaper in the middle of the Citadel. The look on his face had an almost reverence to the creature, it disturbed the team.

"Beautiful, isn't it? In the next few minutes they will come and the galaxy will change forever," Saren then saw Ragan move his arm but steps on it. "I don't think so Human." Saren looked back at the team with a cold look. "You've lost. You know that don't you."

"Whatever, you will died just like Sovereign will," John growled then then saw Ragan grab a M-3 Predator.

Saren scoffed. "You see? This is what I'm trying to save the galaxy from, The stubbornness, foolishness and arrogance," he growled. "You have the vison like me, you know what the Reapers are going to do and yet you fight me!"

"At least I'm not the one who betrayed the Council. You attacked Human colonies only and this is why, the Reapers are controlling you because Humanity is the second advanced race and you wanted them destroyed. I fight because with the Reapers there is no future, do you honestly believe you're the first organic to have those thoughts? If appeasement really worked, why aren't their species with us?"

Saren was taken aback from him. "I…"

"Because the Reapers killed them, all of THEM! What you are doing is opening the door to our own extinction and the Yagh will the ones that will be fighting next and die. And then all races will be destroyed!"

"Maybe… now, you are wrong! Sovereign saw that you would blind me to the truth and so he's given me the gift, he has upgraded me!"

"You let Sovereign implant you?! Are you insane," Ragan said.

Saren glared at Ragan. "No Human, I am the sanest person in here, I am the pinnacle of evolution a fusion of Organic and Synthetic, the strength of both and the weaknesses of nither," Saren said. "You should join me, John. After all you are in love with a species that has started down the same path, isn't that right, Quarian?"

Tali growled, "Bosh'tet! It's not the same; these implants are for our survival only, not to become the abomination you have become."

John scoffed. "Don't waste your breath on him, Rookie. He's too far gone for reason. I rather fight, Saren, I may die but at least I'll die with my dignity intact, that's my choice!"

Saren growled darkly, "So be it, I give you a gift, the birth of a true Utopia and you spit it back in my face. You are the threat to this new era and must be eliminated! Kill them!" The Geth rallied and charged the team. For good measure, rocket drones were summoned to make the battle much more difficult. Tali and Kaiden sabotaged the drones making them all fall in a blaze of glory. John threw a couple of grenades at the approaching Geth, it went all out but one, a rocket trooper that was firing on the team. The Spectre then raised the Geth off the ground with a lift field and Kaiden shut it down with a warp. A gun shot is heard and the team looked at Ragan, who looking for Saren. Saren was nowhere to be found.

Confused at a bit desperate the team looked around. "What in ancestors' name is going on," Tali asked. "He can't just disappear in thin air!" Suddenly, she caught a motion at the corner of her eye. She turned around and saw Saren on his hoverboard. "Keelah, behind up!" The hover board fired missiles at the team, John and Kaiden came up and raised a barrier to protect them from the impact. The impact was becoming too much and the squad fell back.

"You're becoming a nuisance, Commander," Saren growled before something went through his chest and was pulled until he broke the chain.

"I could say the same thing, Saren!" John said while throwing a warp field. Saren flew around between the fire of his assault rifle and the missile fire of his hoverboard. The team took fire at the Turian, but he was too fast to hit and too maneuverable, as Saren could just fly in behind them and flush them out of cover, which he did quite often. Tali sabotaged his board, making it hard for Saren to control, while John and Kaiden pummeled him with gunfire, however at best they were only able to drain his shields. Saren's board recovered from the Sabotage much faster than Tali though, and the fight continued.

"This is nuts, we'll be worn out before we get anywhere with him," Kaiden was breathless. John looked out of cover and saw Ragan was waiting for Saren to make the wrong move so he can jump from the ceiling and attack Saren. Seeing Saren hovering waiting for the team to come at them, Kaiden was right they need it to end it and fast.

"Kaiden, Tali, new plan. You two hit the board, I hit Saren, Ragan will finish him. Give him everything you got!" Tali and Kaiden nodded and went on the offensive, attacking the ex-Spectre with a combination of gunfire, biotics, and tech abilities. Saren worked hard to dodge the Normandy's team's aggressive advances, however the Turian made one mistake: taking his eyes off Ragan and John, as the Humans was above and behind him, John pummeled Saren with warp fields. Then he hears a beep, he was stressing the board from all the dodging and the system was failing. "Keep it up!" The team continued the onslaught, hitting Saren and his board with everything they had, staggering him as bullets, biotics and tech hit him. Ragan then jumps from the ceiling and kicks Saren in the head. John glowed a brilliant blue and landed the final shot from this throw field. The biotic field hit him hard in the back the Turian fell from his board. Ragan quickly jumps off the board and shoots Saren in the leg. It and his body fell below the bridge, leaving the tired squad sighing a breath of relief as least for now.

John walked up to the control terminal and activates this omni-tool, uploading Vigil's data file. The team waited anxiously for the code to take effect hoping they stopped Saren in them. "Come on… come on…" Then a beep sounded, the program had been approved, John worked fast and typed in the code. They heard a large groan coming from above them; the team looked up to see the Citadel's arms starting to open. As John gets the comm channel open the first thing is a mayday call from the Destiny Ascension. Their shields were failing and their engines are offline, they also mention that the Council is on board. The comm opened.

"Normandy to the Citadel. Normandy to the Citadel. Please tell me that's you, John," John said.

"I'm here Joker."

"I'm sitting with the entire Arcturan fleet, all ready to kick ass and take names! We can save the Ascension! Give the word and we'll send the cavalry in!" Tali spoke up.

"Are you sure about this? You'll have a lot of casualties, Human casualties.

"This is bigger than us or the Council, Sovereign is a threat to the entire galaxy," Kaiden said. Ragan shook his head.

"Save the council, and win the war. Sure there will be casualties but this is war, Kaiden. And if you let the council die, then humanity will be labeled as terrorist like Cerberus," Ragan had a point. John closed his eyes, thinking about his next move, sure he didn't like the Council, they've been a pain in the ass since he became a Spectre until Udina was placed in prison. Always criticizing his actions, or the choice he made, it would be so much easier to just let them die and focus on Sovereign. But life wasn't that easy, it was about what was right. He made his choice.

"Go help the Destiny Ascension, as much as I don't like them, we need them, go save them," Ragan and Tali smiled at John.

"Aye, aye sir," Joker then close the comm link.

"I hope the council appreciates this," Tali said.

"They will, after all they owe us," Kaiden said. The team felt a rumble; they cover their eyes as a bring red glow covered the Council Chambers. Then a large angry growl filled the air, as the platform they were standing on shatters and dumps the team into the field below. The team got up as they saw red sparks filling the area; it glowed, and began to fly around in the room, until growing into red lightning coming from Saren.

"Keelah…," Tali gripped John's arm.

"What the hell…?" Both Ragan and Kaiden were shocked. Saren's body is raised off the ground as it becomes infused with the bolts, stripping plates, skin, and muscle only leaving bone remaining until an explosion slams the squad against the walls. When the team came to, Saren's body was gone, but the feeling of foreboding was in the air as the team got up, weapons drawn ready for anything. A streak of red light caught the team's eyes and just as quickly disappeared from their sight, and then it happened again making the team nervous. A bright red energy exploded behind them making them fall to the ground, now they were facing their target, and their eyes went wide as they saw the enemy attached to the wall staring at them with an ominous red glow.

"Saren," John was in complete horror.

**"I AM SOVEREIGN AND THIS STATION IS MINE!"** The abomination once known as Saren attacked.


	64. Chapter 40: Battle of the Citadel part 3

Chapter 40: Battle of the Citadel part 3

**Council Chambers**

"Well shit," John could say as the team fired at Sovereign, but its rapid jumps made it impossible to get a proper aim at him. Ragan then decided jump on the walls and starts jumping towards the machine. But that ended when Sovereign shot a biotic charge at him. Hitting Ragan so hard, that he flew into the all, cracking it so badly that the place was rumbling. Biotics helped a little, but Sovereign's own mass effect field, broke it out. Sovereign latched onto the and rapidly fired red bullets everywhere making cover all but useless. Ragan gets out of the wall, and jumps towards it but this time he evades the bullets and throws an arc grenade at Sovereign, crippling it to fall down on the ground but that didn't last long because it jumped back onto the wall and start attacking Ragan in hand to hand combat.

John threw a couple of grenades at Sovereign, causing multiple explosions after Ragan jumps off the wall, but it didn't slow down the Turian husk as latched to the floor next to the team. It moved slowly, never taking its soulless eyes off the team, it moved like a predator stalking its prey. The team moved also never taking their eyes off Sovereign. Suddenly, John and Kaiden blasted Sovereign with a warp fields while Tali were trying to overload its shields and Ragan was using his pistol to stun it. Sovereign jumped, blasted a stream of red energy, separating John from the rest of the team. With the Spectre alone, the husk pursued him, practically ignoring Tali, Ragan, and Kaiden. John moved to get some breathing room, and Tali and Kiaden shot the husk trying to get it attention but Sovereign was relentless in its pursuit blasting John.

"Cover me," Ragan quickly jumps over Sovereign and starts attacking with his omni-blade.

A few of the blasts missed as Ragan bobbed and weaved, however John got careless and hit wall as Sovereign fired off multiple shots after throwing Ragan to the wall and turned its attention back to John. John raised his barrier as several of his red fireballs hit the Spectre. But the force was too much shattering his barriers and some of the bullets hit him square the chest. John was thrown back and hit the wall hard. He shouted in agony clutching his chest, it was like he was melting from the inside out.

"JOHN," Kaiden and Tali said coming to his side. Ragan quickly recovers and slams the Turian husk to the wall.

**Outside the Citadel**

Meanwhile, things were taking a turn for the worse as the Destiny Ascension was getting battered by Geth Ships. The Turian ships were all but destroyed, and the Geth swarmed though their defenses like it was nothing. All hope was disappearing right before their eyes, only the goddess – if you were an Asari – could save them now.

"Captain, we're getting more activity from the Mass Relay," an Asari said.

"Oh Goddess no… please don't tell me the Geth have reinforcements," the captain said in horror. It was going to be hell if it was more reinforcements.

The navigator shook her head. "No, it's not Geth. It's… reinforcements from the Alliance!" The Mass Relay revealed a whole squadron of Alliance frigates, fighters and a few dreadnoughts flying at full speed, firing at the Geth ships. The Geth tried to react accordingly firing on the Alliance ships but the Humans came in hard and fast with the Normandy leading as the tip of the spear.

The comm opened. "Destiny Ascension, you're all clear. I repeat: you're all clear," Joker said then heard them cheering.

"This is Captain Alat of the Ascension, thank you Humans and may the Goddess bless you," she put on a big smile and started crying for joy. Not only did she survive this but now she was glad that the Humans were helping no matter what. The Destiny Ascension moved off the battle field, as Alliance ships moved in to take on Sovereign. Half of the remaining Turian ships split off, one side to protect the battered Ascension and the other helping support the Alliance.

"This is Admiral Hackett to all ships, the Citadel is open. Unload on that metal bastard!" The first on in there was the Normandy, followed by a dozen of frigates and fighters firing on the Reaper.

**Council Chambers**

Sovereign prowled around John like a predator almost like it was taunting him, the Spectre wasn't surprised he was completely at the husk's mercy. Ragan was nearly killed by an impaled to the lungs that were burnt, but he got up from the ground and charged at it. The husk quickly does a swift kick but Ragan blocks it and does a crown attack on the head. Tali and Kaiden fired at it, but at this point they were like mosquito bites as Sovereign just fired a red bullet to keep human and the Quarian from pestering it. Sovereign looked at Ragan and lunged at him. This was it, he was going to die.

"RAGAN," Tali screamed. Then a miracle happened Sovereign dropped to the ground, glowing red, howling in pain. John was confused at first, but then looked out the window and saw the Normandy and other ships swarming the Reaper. Sovereign couldn't protect itself and possess Saren's body at the same time; it was putting a strain on the Reaper.

"Ragan, attack it," John ordered. Ragan ran up to the husk and started punching and kicking it. "It's losing it… now's our chance… kill Sovereign." Ragan then stops for a while and pulls out a grenade and throws it at the husk. John shakily raised his hand and caught the husk in a singularity field after being blasted by a shotgun, which made the husk fly to the other side. He lifted it above the ground and held it there. Immediately, Kaiden and Tali raised their guns and fired until their guns over heated. Ragan then went up to it and started attacking the husk with his sword. Feeling its victory slipping away, Sovereign grew desperate and charged energy preparing to fire at Ragan and John pointblank, if it was going to die he was going to take the Spectres with it. With Ragan still in pain, he couldn't move that much and quick enough. '_Shit,_' he thought

"Ragan," Kaiden thought fast and engulfed the husk in a biotic field that started to eat away at the husk. Tali came in clos with her shotgun and blasted it until it overheated. Ragan then took his sword and throw it at the husk's chest, impaling the heart with three blades that came out of the handle.

"Get away from him," Tali growled, Sovereign growled angrily and swung at the Quarian but Ragan grabs the arm and breaks it off. "Thanks." Ragan nodded and then took the sword out of the chest and started doing a fast beat-down on it.

John glowed blue and hit Sovereign with the strongest biotic field he could muster, blowing it back on the grass. Sovereign, then started to screech an inhuman screech until it was laying on the ground, twitching only slightly. Suddenly, the red energy that so far had been held inside it engulfed it turning into a bring blaze. Finally the screeches stopped as the blaze stopped only leaving ashes behind.

**Inside the Citadel Arms**

A red stream from the Reaper fired at the Alliance, the Normandy barely dodges the blast as the ship climbed. However the ships at the Normandy's flack were not so lucky as they red beam sheared through them easily.

"Dam it, we just lost Seoul and Madrid!" Sovereign was not down yet as it fired wildly at the squadron, becoming desperate at it returns fire and just one shot severs an Alliance cruiser in half. "It's too strong! We need to retreat!"

"Negative, we retreat we may never get another chance," Hackett said. "Keep at it!"

"Sir! Something is happening to Sovereign!" The beams of energy stopped abruptly as the ship started to glow red sparks and the light on the Reaper went off, it lost power. Next, because it lost power its balance and started to fall, this was the chance they were waiting for. "Its shields are down!"

Hackett nodded. "All ships, give it everything we got, blow that metal bastard back to the black hole it came from!"

"Aye, aye sir." The fleet opens fire and Joker swings the Normandy into a hard turn. The ship fires one missile that goes straight though Sovereign. The missile damage causes secondary explosions that tears Sovereign apart and it explodes. Cheers roared through the comms as they saw Sovereign get torn apart, however little did they know a small piece of the Reaper was heading right for the Council Chamber.

"Normandy to ground team. Normandy to ground team. Get out of the Council Chambers. A piece of Sovereign is heading over there," Joker yelled through the comm. There was no answer.

**Council Chambers**

"Hell of a fight, eh?" Kaiden was exhausted. Ragan looked around and sat on the ground. John tried to laugh but ended up panting. His chest hurt like hell from all the running.

"Something to tell the kids." Ragan said trying get up. Tali helped him him, holding him up against one of her shoulders. Kaiden gets John up and Tali and Kaiden switch people. Kaiden had Ragan and Tali had John.

"Are you all right," Tali asked concerned.

"I'm… ugh." A wave a pain hit him. "I've been better." He looked at Tali, as she was touching his side. "Besides, I should be asking you that…"

"Nothing medi-gel can't patch up." The team looked out of the window, looking as Sovereign was nothing more as a bright fireball and random parts floating out into space. They have done it, they defeat a threat 50,000 years in the making on the first part. After months of chasing Saren, after several painful revelations and hard battles, after too painful sacrifices and many disappointments, things were at an end. Even if this victory was temporary, that didn't mean they couldn't enjoy it now. The Reaper threat is still out there and they just defeat one. There are more to be dealing with and more pain to come.

"Beautiful sight, isn't it," John asked.

"I'm glad that it's over now," Tali said softly.

John kissed her. "I know, Rookie… At least we have the team ready now." Tali and Kaiden nodded. However their victory was short-lived as they saw a piece of Sovereign flying towards them at high-speed. John's eyes grew wide; there wasn't enough to get everyone out of the way in time, so he did the only thing he could think of… he biotically pushed Tali and Kaiden out of the way but Ragan grabs him and throws John towards the team.

"Ragan," the team said alarmed. The window burst and a huge fragment of Sovereign's leg came darting through it.

"GO! GET OUT OF HERE," Ragan yelled before the fragment impacted his location at the top of the Citadel Tower. A moment later, an Alliance team led by Anderson comes through the wreckage looking for survivors, the former captain looked around the Chambers and shook his head, what was once the heart of galactic civilization now lay in ruins – the very seat of the Council had been reduced to a mess of collapsed structures and debris of now dead Reaper.

"Captain, we found survivors!" Anderson walked across the ruined Chamber, careful to not trip over the debris. As he turned a corner, he saw three people he recognized, Tali, Kaiden and John. The Quarian was on her knees crying into her hands at Kaiden had his hand on her shoulder trying to console her and John had his arms wrapped around her. But something was wrong, if those three were there, so should Ragan.

"Kaiden, what happened here? Where's the Sergeant," he saw John low his head. Anderson feared the worse.

"H-he… he… oh Keelah…," Tali said in tears. Kaiden spoke up.

"He got John out of the way, he saved his life and John pushed out of the way and saved our lives," he close his eyes and tears came down.

"No…," Anderson looked at the debris in horror, they may have stopped Sovereign but not without a cost.


	65. Chapter 41: Aftermath of the Battle

Chapter 41: Aftermath of the Battle

Tali kept digging and dug some more hoping to the ancestors her lover's cousin was alive somewhere. She couldn't believe that Ragan was dead, she couldn't, they survive Cerberus, they survive the Thorian, the Rachni, Benezia and Saren. All the hardship he endured, only for him to be killed, she couldn't believe, she wouldn't believe. "Please… please be alive, Ragan," she mumbled to herself. "We can't… lose you. Please…"

Kaiden looked at the Quarian with pity in his eyes, he knew where she was coming from, Ragan wasn't just his Commanding Officer but he was also his best friend. But even he had to face the fact that Ragan could be gone, a thought he hated. He looked back at John and Anderson; they looked lost and distant, even as they were trying to find Ragan's body. The grim reality if the situations was beginning to sink in for him. Kaiden walked up to Tali and put a hand on her shoulder. "Tali…," he said softly.

"No Kaiden, Ragan's alive, I know it," the Quarian kept digging into the debris.

"We've been looking for three hours now, Tali, and we still haven't found him," Kaiden looked back at John and Anderson. "Even if he was alive, he had more than likely succumbed to his injuries by now…" Tali continued to dig through the debris, ignoring Kaiden, she tried to pull a huge beam from the pile, but it wouldn't budge, she tried and tried, until her strength gave out. Now on the floor, looking at the concentration of rubble, the overwhelming feeling of despair hit her gut as if a Krogan punched her. Ragan was lost, she would never again here him call her 'friend', as would never hear the way he spoke to defend her on the Noramndy, and she would never see his smile... Tears welled up in her eyes.

"Tali…" Tali immediately looked up, thinking she heard Ragan's voice, but nothing was around. Was her grief so bad that she was now hearing things? But then… "Tali…" She looked around, she wasn't going crazy; she was hearing Ragan's voice. Suddenly, there was a noise from beyond the rubble and wreckage, it was the unmistakable noise of debris being disturbed coming from her side. She ran to the disturbance, almost tripping over the debris, until she got to the wreckage and saw a hand underneath; she pulled out some of the wreckage until she revealed Ragan's face, full of cuts and bruises and cover in blood.

"Keelah, John! Kiaden, Anderson, John!" She immediately began to pull the debris from him. "Ragan, please hang on, please… please…"

"Tali, I'm so sorry…," Ragan said weakly.

"Hush, you pribadi, you can apologize after we get you out…"

"That's just it," Ragan coughed blood. A tell-tell sign that his heart, lungs, and other organs were destroyed. "I'm not going to make it." His eyes went blank and his face was cold. Tali looked at him and checked for a pulse but felt nothing. Ragan was dead. He died for saving John and the others from this nightmare but now he died."

Moments later, Kaiden, John, Anderson and two rescuers went to help the Quarian dig Ragan's dead body out; but some miracle he was alive to give his final message to Tali. After getting the dead body, Anderson called the medics in, helping to get him back alive if they can to Huerta Memorial Hopsital. Fiv minutes they got to the hospital, they brought him back alive. He stayed in the hospital for the next couple days, Ragan would be recovering, but it was such the cost of victory. When Ragan recovered enough, the Spectre soon received a call from Anderson, the council wanted to speak with him and John.

"Anderson," John greeted. "What this about?"

"Don't know, although I have a sinking feeling it may be because of what we did, to get to Illos," Ragan laughed at Anderson.

John frowned. "That's bullshit, if we didn't get the Normandy we would all be dead."

"you know that I now that and Ragan knows that but him hacking into a computer is still not allowed. The Councilors only postpone his trial, probably. And I'm not sure the Council or the Alliance will see it that way." Anderson sighed. "Oh well, at least he was able to end his career with a hang. I suppose there was worse ways."

"Try the electric chair," Ragan said. "That's one way I wanted to die and now I really do if the Council will just hold onto false hope promises."

John lowered his head. "I'm sorry…"

"For what? I came up with the idea – didn't I? – you just took the advice, I should be punished not him," Anderson pointed at Ragan.

"You won't be facing this alone, if you go down, I'll go down there with you," Ragan said. John nodded with them.

"Shepards…"

"It's the least I can do, after everything you did for me, saving my life on Mindoir, taking in two angry punk kids for all these years, I'm not leaving you with bag," John stated.

Anderson chuckled lightly. "So stubborn… oh well, I know better than to argue with you. John, no matter what happens, in my book, you're a goddamn hero." John smiled. "Same with you Ragan and the whole crew of the Normandy." Ragan shook his head.

"Thanks, old man," John said.

"No problem, little punk," Anderson said. The trio went to the Council Chambers, the Chambers was still a mess from all the fighting, but it was coming along faster than anyone though. '_Ah, the benefits of power,_' John thought. The first one they met was the new Ambassador, Pete Morris, the ambassador had almost a smug look on his face, no doubt happy about whatever punishment they were possibly going to get for Ragan's stunt. John really wanted to wipe that look off his face, but he looked back and saw Anderson and Ragan shaking their heads, the Spectre hesitantly relented he may be stripped of everything, it was probably best not to make it worse. Finally the Council made their appearance look no worse for wear, even though they were close to dying a few days ago.

"Ambassador, Sergeant, Captain, Commander," the Asari started. "We have gathered you here to recognize the enormous contributions of the Alliance forces in the war against Sovereign and the Geth."

John, Ragan and Anderson looked at each other; it looked like they weren't in trouble after all. Morris' expression however changed, not doubt disappointed with not seeing them being punished. "Many humans lost their lives to save all of us, brace and courageous lives so we might live," the Salarain said.

"There is no greater sacrifice, and we share our grief over the loss of noble men and women," the Turian said. He had his head bowed.

"We also owe you a great personal debt. One we can never repay," the Asari said. "You saved not just our lives but the lives of billions.

"And though we can't bring them back, we can honor them through our actions," the Turian's head lifted up with a smile. Ragan and John never seen him smile.

"Humanity has shown it is ready to be protectors of the galaxy. You have proven to be worthy to join the ranks our and serve beside the Citadel council." The humans looked shocked, they knew they had done were good, but never in their wildest dreams would they be asked to join. Upon hearing the news, John saw Morris' eyes lit up and instantly rolled his eyes, he knew what was coming.

"On behalf of humanity and Alliance we thank you for this horror and humbly accept," Morris said. His British ascent made Ragan look at him with a raised brow.

"We will need a list of potential…," the Salarian said before being interrupted by John. Now it was everyone's turn to look at the Spectre.

"Actually, I know who would be a good choice," the councilors looked at each other.

"Who," the Asari asked.

"Anderson," John said simply. Morris and Anderson looked at him.

"Anderson, he's not a politician," Morris growled.

"Exactly, we've got enough of them on the Citadel. What we need is someone straight forward. Humanity needs someone looking out for their best interests, not trying to further their own agenda," John glared at Morris. "You are just as bad as Udina. And Anderson is the most honorable, trustworthy person I know, he'll do us proud."

The Asari smiled. "I think it's an inspired choice. The council welcomes him with open arms, should he accept." Anderson blinked for a minute; the older man had to take a moment to process this endorsement of John. He then felt a hand on his shoulder and looked back, John nodded and smiled. Ragan nodded and gave him a thumbs up. That is when he realized, they weren't doing this just to screw Udina, but they really believed in him.

"Uh, I'm honored, Councilor. As Humanity repetitive, I'll do everything in my power to help you rebuild and help with wars," Anderson said.

"Sovereign's defeat marks the beginning of a new beginning for humanity and the council," the Turian said.

John smirked. "Then I got work to do," he said as he walked out.

"I'm sorry, but there is another matter at hand. Cerberus wants to join with the Alliance because after Sovereign's attack, Human colonies have gone dark," the Turian said. "We have accept their offer if we have someone placed as a spy. Tell us who the spy should be."

"Make it Ragan, good infiltrator, took down three geth units without getting hit with only his martial arts," the council looked at Ragan and nodded.

"He is that qualified then we need to him there today. He will be transferred. We don't know if Cerberus is hiding this by saying it is because of the Human colonies but he don't know. That is why Ragan will be leaving your crew."

"Understood, Councillor. But that means you have to revoke his Spectre status."

"No that won't be necessary," the Salarian said. "He will be a spy, he won't join Cerberus officially."

John walked away and saw Tali waiting for him at the entrance. "So how long were you watching?"

"For a while…," she then saw Morris walking over to the couple; he gave a cold glare at John as he brushed past the Spectre. "I think you've made him angry."

"A bonus," he said with a smirk. He then grew serious, Saren and Sovereign were gone, they had won, but it would mean Tali going back to the fleet. "So I guess, this is where we say goodbye?"  
Tali hugged him. "No."

"But what about…?"

"My people are very important to me, and I have to do what's best for them. But with the Reapers still out there, I realized that staying with you is what's best for my people. That is why I got transferred to the Normandy."

"I can't tell you how happy it makes me to hear that, Tali, but won't you…?"

Tali placed her finger on John's lips, "I'll risk it. I don't care if I get homesick."

"What about the Geth data?"

"I still plain on giving it to my people. It's important that they get it. But after that I'm coming with you, though it will take some time…"

"Why's that? We can just go now on the Normandy."

"You would…?"

"Anything for my girl," he said with a smile. He wrapped his arm around Tali's neck and walked out of the Council Chambers, however little did the Spectre knew, he was being watched.


	66. Part Two of Three of Stroy

Beauty and the Beast part 2 of 3

Plot: After Saren's defeat and Sovereign being destroyed, a new threat happens and something isn't right this time.


	67. Chapter 42: Ambushed

Chapter 42: Ambushed

**Normandy Cockpit**

As the Normandy is flying in the Omega System, everything is quiet. Joker and most of the crew is up working on what seems to be finding Geth but it was probably something the Alliance wanted. Since three days after Ragan left the crew to work for the Council to be a spy for them in Cerberus, it wasn't that peaceful. But that changed when John and Tali were in the same room looking at each other, trying to find out what could have gone wrong with the three Alliance Frigates that went missing in the past month of Sovereign's defeat. Most of the people believe it was Pirates or Slavers but the Alliance was covering it until they got solid proof on it. It was hard for the Alliance to find out what happened, all reports stated that it was a big ship with an unknown IFF and doesn't read in any of the known species. So to the Alliance they had their suspensions that it was pirates or Slavers but then again they were working with Cerberus to find out and Cerberus came up with a theory and the Alliance sent John's ship to investigate. Cerberus thought of one alien group that is only seen once or twice: Collectors.

Joker is typing on the console trying to get some evidence on this. "Stealth systems intact. Authorizing new power junctions. Heat emissions are offline. Normandy is clear to move on." Pressly comes up with a data pad and looks at him.

"Ten days of searching and we haven't found a single Geth ship," Pressly was always the type that was nearly negative all the time.

"Something must have happened. Three Alliance ships went missing in the past month," Joker countered.

"My bet is on pirates or slavers. I never trusted Cerberus. The Terminus is always full of them."

"Something has came up on our sensors. An unknown ship," one of the navigators said. "They are changing courses. They have intercepted our course."

Pressly looked at them and shook his head. "Can't be. Stealth systems are online. It can't be the…"

"It not the Geth! Prepare for evasion maneuvers," Joker yelled through the intercom. As the Normandy is flying away, a beam comes out and destroys the terminal that is closest to Pressly and kills him.

"Pressly," said the navigator.

"Shit, shit, shit," Joker cursed under his breath. "All system offline. Engines not responding. Someone put that fire out," he yelled. "Damn it." Another beam goes through the Normandy. Another explosion, and this time, some of the navigators is killed in the process. "Shit." He quickly gets on the Alliance channels and sees that most of them are blocked. "What the shit? Most of them are blocked," as he is scrolling he finally finds one channel not blocked. "Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is SSV Normandy. We are dealing heavy damage from an unknown enemy. Anyone read me."

**Normandy Crew Deck**

Light and sirens are going off. The echo of the screaming is hear and pain can be seen everywhere from where the beam went through the ship. John is placing his helmet on his head as Tali comes up. She then looks at what happened to the ship and sees John is typing on a consol.

"John," she said.

"Distress beacon is set," he grabs a fire extinguisher and starts using it on the fires.

"Will the Alliance make it in time?"

"They won't leave one of their best ships down from something like this." John hands Tali a fire extinguisher. "Is everyone abandoning ship?"

"Yes, but Joker is still at the cockpit. I'm not leaving either." John looked at her and shook his head.

"Get to the escape pods, Rookie. I need you alive with me. I can't have you dying on me. I'll deal with Joker's cripple ass." He quickly starts looking at her. For a second there, it looks like she wasn't going to do anything.

"But John…"

"Go, please for me," John grabs her hand and rubs it. "Please Tali."

"Okay," Tali runs out of the area and heads to the escape shuts.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is the SSV Normandy. We are dealing heavy damage from an unknown enemy. Can anyone hear me," Joker's voice is heard from the intercoms. John then runs up the stairs and exits it the intact ship. "Come on baby, hold together. Just a few more minutes."

**Normandy Escape Pods**

Tali quickly gets to one of them and stops at the entrance. "Everyone in. Go, go, go!" As she looks and sees one of the crew coming but is killed by an explosion. Tali quickly gets in the escape pod and sits down next to Chakwas. The door closes and one of crewmembers starts pressing a few buttons for it to be released from the Normandy.

"Tali, you okay," Chakwas asked.

"No, Joker is still on the bridge and John is going to get him. I'm worried about him," she answered.

"I'm sure nothing bad will happen. After all, he is related to the man that was brought back to life after Sovereign's attack to the Citadel."

"Keelah, I know. I just hope that bosh'tet, Joker, doesn't get my sayang killed."

**Normandy Cockpit**

John quickly gets behind Joker and places a hand on the Joker's chair. "Come on, Joker. We got to move."

"No, I can still save here, just give me time," Joker pleaded. John shook his head.

"The Normandy is dead, just like us if we don't get out of here."

"Yeah, okay. Help me… Oh no, they're coming for another attack," John grabs Joker's arm. He forgot about Joker having brittle bones disease. "Aw, watch the arm." As the beam come down and struck the ship for the fourth time, John and Joker got to the airlock pod and waited for it to be safe.

As the beam traveled through the ship, an explosion happened forcing John to grab ahold of the ship. But it didn't last long. "Shit," he was trying to hold on while the metal was stripping part. John tried to get the bulkhead but before he could an explosion happened and he was flown out.

"COMMANDER," Joker yelled.

John was floating in space and was losing oxygen. After a while, he saw the Normandy get destroyed and it was over for him. He was going to die. His suit starts ejecting steam and life support starts shutting down. John tries to get a hold of the holes but fails when his oxygen reaches zero. After that, he died by asphyxiation. His body is then taken to an uncharted planet and is never recovered.


	68. Chapter 43: Rebirth part 1

Chapter 43: Rebirth part 1

"Wake up, Shepard," a feminine voice is heard. A rumble shook him and that woke him. "Shepard, do you hear me? Get out of bed now – this facility is under attack." John got up only to fill a sharp pain on his side, he looked around. He was in a lab, all white. He then looked on the walls and saw a gold symbol, it looked familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. The intercom opened again and the same voice spoke again only more demanding. "Your scars aren't healed, but I need you to get up now."

"A bit bossy, aren't you," he asked annoyed.

"How about you complain when you get off the station, hmm?" John could hear the sounds of battle. He then heard something in the vents. "There's a pistol and armor in the locker, hurry." John got off the medical table and moved to the locker and equipped his armor and M-3 pistol.

"Hey, uh, voice lady," he heard the voice mutter something but he didn't get it. "There's no ammo in this."

"Get it off the desk and move your ass." John rolled his eyes. He was suddenly knocked off his feet by an explosion.

"Damn, my head." He then saw six legs come in, John looked up and saw they were mechs. Must have been new models, because he never seen a LOKI mech before. The intercom opened.

"Damn, they're here. Shepard, press one of the buttons on your omni-tool." The robots took aim and fired.

"Shit," he said. As he pressed his omni-tool, a golden energy armor suit enveloped him and bullets bounced off of him. John smirked, "Fuck yeah." The robots aimed again and John rolled backwards and on to his feet. He then went to one of the meches and tore the head off then jumped next to the other mech and ripped its control chip out. The third mech tried to run, John glowed blue and with a small sweep of his arm, be blew back the droid with a powerful throw, so powerful that caused a small dent crack against the window. John looked at his hand in awe, he's always been a somewhat good biotic, but his biotics was now at least Vanguard class. A rumble shook him out of his thoughts. He then saw a chain kunai and picked it up. "Strange, this must be Ragan's calling card."

He then went to the mech and saw that it was not only hacked but it had new weapons he never saw. "Hey, what the hell is going on," he asked.

"Someone is hacking security trying to kill you," the voice said.

John scoffed. "Thank you, miss obvious, but why?"

"I don't know. But keep moving, you need to get to the shuttles."

"Don't have to tell me twice," he muttered. He walked out of the room only to be met with more mechs. "Nice…"

One of the vents busted open and a male took one of the mechs by the feet and throw it at the wall. He then went to the second mech and swept it off its feet and jump smashed it. The third and fourth mech tried to kill him but he was quick. He quickly grabs one of them and throws it to the other followed by a quick shadow strike. More mechs came and the man quickly jumps up to the ceiling.

"Don't take any chances. Stay in…" John rushed towards the mechs and blased them with warp fields. "…cover." One of the mechs aimed and fired but John turned on the ball of his feet and blast it with a throw field that took off the mech's head. John felt amazing, he had never been this fast.

"Hey, voice lady, what other goodies does this thing have?"

"It has all eight classes…"

"Eight classes? Last time I remembered there were only six: Infiltrator, Engineer, Adept, Vanguard, Soldier, and Sentinel."

"Yes those are still there, but they added two more: Medic and Heavy. Anyway, it has cyro blast, but Shepard, what you did was…"

"Got it," he activated his omni-tool and pointed it at the nearest droid. The robot froze instantly. John smirked. "Hot damn…" John then threw a throw field and shattered the droid. More came into the room and John used his singularity to lift the enemies.

"How…," the voice started. John blasted the droids with a warp field and went downstairs. Everywhere he saw was carnage and bodies, the walls were burned and covered with blood and brains. There were some dents in the walls that made it look like a serial killer made his home there.

"Hey, voice lady, you seeing this," he asked. The man quickly gets out of the vents. John uses his lift field and finds out that it was it was a hacked droid instead of a man. John grabs his pistol and shots the head off.

"Yes…"

"Good, be careful out there."

"Right…," the intercom was shut off. John picked up a heavy weapon on the floor and went downstairs. As he went through the base, he saw people gunned by heavy mechs. Entering the next room, John saw a dark-skinned man on a bridge area, fighting a group of mechs standing on another small bridge at the other side of the room. He went to help.

"Shepard," the man asked.

"Hold that though," John blasted the mechs with his heavy weapon causing explosions. "So who are you?"

"What are you doing here? I thought you were a work in progress."

"Look pal; I don't know where I am or how I got here. Plus my head feels like an overripe melon ready to split open. How about some answers."

"Damn… I forgot this is all new to you, sorry about that," the man said. "I'm Jacob Taylor… I've been stationed here for…." They then heard the elevator come down and more mechs came out.

"Hostiles detected," one the mechs said as it fired.

"Damn it," Jacob said as he went to cover and shot the mech's head.

"Nice shot," John said.

"Things must be dire if Miranda awoke you," John looked at him.

"Miranda?"

"The woman on the intercom," he explained. "Is she…?"

"She's fine." Jacob sighed a breath of relief.

"Good, we should finish these guys and then get to her."

"It's your station, Jacob, I'll follow you," John and Jacob went into battle. Shooting mechs left and right before leaving the area.


	69. Chapter 43: Rebirth part 2

Chapter 42: Rebirth part 2

John was absolutely livid, he couldn't believe this. After the battle with Jacob, told him everything, he was dead for two years. Jacob did tell him that the Alliance was the ones that had to keep this secret because it would make everything out of balance. The Alliance was the ones that ordered Cerberus to help bring back the Commander after Ragan gave them information about the Reapers were real. The Alliance took it to the next step, told the Council and they followed the Alliance to have Cerberus bring Cerberus back. So really, John owes his life by the Council and the Alliance. Cerberus was the ones that did the job.

"Maybe you should slow down, you'll tire yourself out," Jacob said. John did not answer.

"I don't think he's listening," Wilson said.

"I don't blame you… his whole team denied of know this and for what? To be lied that John was dead and that he won't be back to fight the Reapers," Wilson looked at Jacob and gave a sigh. As the team went upstairs to the shuttle bay they were met with more mechs, Wilson and Jacob got their weapons ready out, but John trapped them all in stasis fields and blasted them with the last of his grenades.

"Let's go…" Wilson and Jacob looked at him as he walked away.

Wilson whistled. "I see those four billion credits was worth it." Jacob looked at him.

"Shut it, Wilson." Although he had to agree. The team made it to the shuttle door with Wilson ahead. He opened it and a woman came through, she was beautiful with long dark flowing hair and piercing blue eyes. If it wasn't for the fact she was with Cerberus and a temporally ally, she could be mistaken for a model. She wore tight white catsuit, with dark high heel boots. Sexy, yes, but practical for combat no.

Wilson paled. "Miranda, but you were…" Miranda gave Wilson a murderous gaze and shot him. Wilson fell dead. John instantly raised his head at the woman.

"Dead?" Jacob glared at the woman.

"Miri, what the hell are you doing?!" John raised a brow. '_Miri? Just how close are they,_' he thought.

Miranda put her weapon away and crossed her arms. "I was doing my job, the little weasel betrayed us."

"How do you know that? We had known Wilson for years." Miranda rolled her eyes.

"As long of a time as you've known me, how many times have I been wrong?" Jacob was about to say something, but shut up. Miranda gave a smug smirk. "Though so."

"I had a feeling Wilson was just looking for a chance to shoot me in the back," John cautiously put his gun away never taking his eyes off the woman. Despite being Cerberus, Jacob had been straight with John, so far, and the voice lady now revealed as Miranda had helped him get to this point. There was a reason that brought him back, he wanted to know what that was.

"Good instincts. Some people are just untrustworthy on first sight and others hide it from the people," she said. It was a dark tone in her voice that made John look at her like she was trouble no matter what.

"So, what now? Because I need answers, like now or I will blow your brains everywhere. I know you work with Cerberus and that Cerberus is having a temporally truce with both the Council and Alliance, why?" Miranda sighed and looked at Jacob.

"Ah, Jacob. Should have known that you and your guilty conscience…," she sounded annoyed and was, for a second there, about to become a fist fight.

Jacob crossed his arms, "Lying to the Commander would be wrong if he is going to work with us and the Alliance. I don't stab people in the back, you know that. You won't get him on our side like that."

"I'm not on your side, but I'll listen, but this better be good," John walked to the shuttle.

"Well, I wasn't expecting that," Miranda said. Jacob smirked and walked past Miranda.

"See, sometimes my way works too," he said. Miranda scoffed and followed them in the shuttle.

During the shuttle ride from Lazarus Station to another Cerberus station called Titan Station, Miranda asked John questions about his past, much to John's annoyance. Jacob found the exercise unnecessary, to which John had to agree. They arrived in the facility; it was time to meet this so-called Illusive Man. The base they were standing in was nothing special, a few decks; a few computers. The Spectre was quite surprised at it being this simple; he was expecting something more extravagant befitting the leader of Cerberus. John went down the only path that was there and went downstairs, only to see an empty room. "Is this a joke," he yelled.

"You have to walk forward," Jacob explained. "See that circle in the center of the room?" John frowned at him, wasn't sure if this was just a trap.

Miranda crossed her arms. "It's safe. Why would we spend four billion credits to bring you back only to kill you again," she asked annoyingly. John walked slowly to the center of the room. A column of light surrounded John. He could see a middle-aged man wearing a fancy suit sitting on a chair, behind him was a sun, the man looked at him with cold mechanical eyes no doubt implants.

"Commander Shepard," he put his cigarette down in an ash tray that was attached to the chair.

"Illusive Man," John responded back with crossed arms. "I thought we would be meeting face to face."

"A necessary precaution, Cerberus had many enemies."

"Being terrorists tends to do that."

"You may not like our methods, but we are ultimately on the same side. And you know why."

"The Reapers. Out with it, what do you know?"

"Straight to the point, I like that. While you were 'asleep' colonies – Human colonies – are disappearing in the Terminus Systems."

"How do you know it was the Reapers? It could be just slavers."

"Slavers don't leave ghost towns behind. Plus there were no signs of conflict; it was almost like they just left. This happened before after Sovereign being destroyed."

It all made sense. The Alliance and Cerberus were doing this together because they were afraid what was happening to the colonies. Being destroyed or being abducted by some unknown enemy. "So this is why you had the Alliance and the Council do something about me? So I can investigate what happened?" Illusive Man sighed.

"Yes, and we are covering it up right until we get solid proof. All your efforts were for something but we don't know what is going on. The only thing I know is that colonies are being abducted and without any proof of conflict. I think it is a rare alien species that have been seen very few times: Collectors.

"Okay, so investigate and find the proof so that you can publish this?" He couldn't believe that what the Illusive Man said was true, all the danger and sacrifices being swept under the rug until proof comes out. They would be wiped out, if they didn't get the proof and even then, it would be too late because no one knows when they will come. It was a like a bad joke, he knew he had to do, but it would be everything he was taught and what he was for. "What do I have to do?"

"Like I said we need evidence on what is doing this and how to prevent it. Once you get the proof, we will get it publicized everywhere so that the colonies can get to the Citadel. Admiral Hackett authorized that and had given us new resources to help you with the mission. But first, go to Freedom's Progress. It was the latest colony to disappear, you may find something. And if you don't then we will keep on until proof comes along."

"Is this a volunteer job or is it an order?" TIM (the Illusive Man) smirked.

"You always have a choice, Shepard. If you don't have evidence, well you're free to go and let other get attacked. The Alliance will then place a bounty on your head for not following an order."

John crossed his arms. "I find it hard to believe that there are no strings attached beside the Alliance placing a bounty on me."

"Please, Shepard, as much as you may hate Cerberus, don't insult me. I'm a man of my word," TIM said.

"Yeah, so was Lucifer, right before taking someone's soul," John walked out of the room. Jacob and Miranda met with him, almost waiting intently for his orders. He was still didn't know if he could trust them, but he would have to worry about that later.

"So, what's the plan," Jacob asked.

"We go to Freedom's Progress, and find evidence of what has made the colony disappear." Jacob and Miranda nodded. "Move out."

As John head to the colony, little did he knew someone important to him was already heading there.

**Dialma's (Quarian ship) shuttle**

**Two Years ago – Omega System SSV Normandy SR-1 (defunct)**

_"John!"_

_"Damn it, I really loused thing up this time…"_

_"No! Hang on; we're coming to get you!"_

_"Rookie stay back. The enemy is still here, I won't let you throw your life away!"_

_"But…!"_

_"Rookie, remember what I told you. I need you to live Rookie, live and get that data to your people… I'm just sorry I won't be there with you…"_

_"No… please…"_

_"Tali… I… only have a few seconds of air left… I have to say this, before it's too late. I love you… from the bottom of my heart…"_

_"John… I love you too."_

_"I'm sorry…" John's side went silent until a message was heard about life support shutting down._

_"JOHN!"_

**NOW**

Tali's eyes instaly opened as the VI alert message woke up to a cold seat. Tali looked around her surrounds; she was within the shuttle, sitting in the co-pilot's seat in the cockpit. Her second-in-command, Prazza, sat in the pilot's seat, attentively observing the ship's system. She looked out the window stroking her necklace, as a feeling a melancholy washed over here. It had been two years since John Ryu Shepard, her captain, her first love died on the original Normandy. Since then the only time she had seen John was in her dreams or rather her nightmares.

Since then, she's been a productive member of the Migrant Fleet. She gave her gift to the Admiral of her choice and changed her name. She was now Tali'Zorah vas Neema, of the warship Neema, and a legend of the fleet, the young Quarian who had braved dangers to give her people data on the Geth, her people's humiliation. Everywhere she met, was greeted with praises for young Quarians and old Quarians, she even got the attention of her father – even though she had it already after Ragan saved her mother and Tali – even if it was for missions. But all that was hollow without John, life was hollow, the time she spent on the Normandy was one of the best times of her life, so many friends she made on that ship. While she knew it would have to end at some point, she just wished it didn't end like it did. She told Ragan the news, and he saw the big soldier cry for the first time, it was painful for him because Ragan considered John like a brother.

"Approaching Freedom's Progress," Prazza said.

**John**

"You okay, Commander," Jacob asked. The Spectre looked at him and then the window. John was silent throughout the flight looking in the window, not at the stars, but at his own reflection, his face. He could see the orange-red lights of cybernetics used to rebuild his face, as he looked, a feeling of self-hatred washed over him. Tali came to John's mind, he knew her hatred of synthetics, mostly because of the Geth who took everything from her people. He knew she survived the Normandy and wanted to call her but stopped. He didn't know how she would react to him being alive, would she embrace or would she reject him as a fraud or being half synthetic. Would she see him as the man she fell in love with or would she see him as an abominations similar to Saren? All those questions, and now answers, this scared his shitless. "Commander?"

"I'm fine," he finally answered, still staring at his reflections. "It's only now starting to really sink in. Everyone thinks I'm dead and moved one… how do you cope with that?"

"Sorry, we'll arrive at Freedom's Progress shortly. Maybe some fresh air will help you feel better," Jacob said, it might help.

"Doubtful," Miranda said bluntly. "It's just mental stress. With your psychological profile you'll be fine, with time." Jacob palmed his face.

John glared at him. "Just some 'mental stress'?! I lost two years of my fucking life. I lost my love life and my family because of an unknown enemy," he shouted. Jacob got up between them.

"Commander, please calm down. Miranda, chill now," Jacob places his arms on both of them. John scoffed and wet back to concentrating on his reflection on the window. Miranda went back to read the mission data. Jacob sighed of relief.

His thought were suddenly interrupted as the shuttle began to shake and rumble loudly. "We've entered the planet's atmosphere. We'll land in Freedom's Progress shortly," Miranda said.

"Good I need something to kill," John said without taking his eyes off his reflection.


	70. Chapter 44: Love at the Colony part 1

Chapter 44: Love at the Colony part 1

**Tali**

"We've mad touchdown," Ali said. The Quarians were on Freedom's Progress. The colony wasn't nothing special; however it was empty, eerily empty. One of the Quarians went and scanned the area.

"Any signs of life," Tali asked. Ali shook her head as she walked back to the group. Ali'Quran vas Hala was the second female of the group and a genius navigator due to coming from a family of helmsmen and pilots. However despite, her genius, she came across as cold, according to her dossier she was a loner, rare among the usually sociable Quarians.

"No, it seems this colony have been empty for about a month," she said.

"Glad we got a human onboard," Tali turns her head as Ragan comes up. He was with the Quarians because the Quarians needed someone close to Tali if she broke up in her crying. "That's been empty for a mouth, why hasn't the Alliance investigated."

"Who cares what happens to a bunch of humans. It's a waste of time thinking about it," that didn't end well for Prazza. Ragan punched him so hard, bones broke. Tali glared at Prazza, Prazza'Reegar vas Moreh, youngest son of the famed Reegar clan, and an absolute pain in Tali and Ragan's ass. Before she came on as leader of the team, Prazza was the leader of this team, he never forgave Tali for taking his position, so he fought with her and questioned her every orders. "What was that for, you ass?"

Ragan didn't like Prazza because Prazza was the type that hated everything he did. "Because you are next to a Human and the next goddamn time you say something like that, I. WILL. **KILL YOU**," Ragan yelled at Prazza, who was shaking in his boots. "I will tell you I told a xenophobic person that served under me: Aliens have a right to investigate. You don't like it, I can make your life a living hell." Ragan walked towards a double door and opens it with his brute strength.

Tali came up to Prazza and punched him hard in the stomach. "Watch your mouth, bosh'tet, they risked everything to save us two years ago. You will not disrespect them understood?"

Prazza got off the ground and glared at her. Luckily the bones were healed because of the new technology that was going on that instantly fixed bones. "Yes ma'am."

"Good because the next time you disrespect them, I will allow Ragan'Shepard vas Earth to kill you."

"Do you think Veetor is alive," Tam asked. Tam'Yala vas Tonbay, was the team strategist and thankfully the most reasonable of the group, due to Tali and Prazza's short tempers, and Ali's stoic nature, he was the one to keep the team from killing each other, a job that annoyed him to no end. Tali looked at him.

"I don't know, but we will need to find out." Ali spoke up after Tali.

"Ma'am, we have a shuttle incoming, identified as Cerberus," Tali and the team looked at Ragan.

"Tali, remember when the Council said that Human colonies were getting attacked by an unknown species, Cerberus and the Alliance has made a temporally truce until this threat is over," the rest of the team didn't believe Ragan but this cause they had no other choice. After all, Ragan was the Council's spy and found nothing against Cerberus during the two years, so they had to let him go.

"What would Cerberus be doing here," Tam asked.

"Probably finishing what they started, well what the HUMANS started," Ragan pulled a gun and aimed it at Prazza's head.

"FUCK YOU," Ragan then got up to the Quarian and pistol whipped him. "Next time, you won't to be hateful, I will make damn certain a bullet will go to your head."

"Cerberus, is pro-Human right," Tali asked. "Why would they attack a Human colony?"

"Cerberus may be pro-Human but they are still terrorists after the truce is gone," Ragan said. He was telling the truth about that part.

"Humans are capable of anything, just look at Idena," Prazza said.

Ragan let Tali had this round. Tali got in his face. "Just because a group of Humans attacked us, doesn't mean they're all bad."

"Says the Human lover," Prazza shot back. Ragan shot Prazza in the arm. "Bosh'tet!" Tam looked at Ali, who as usual was uninterested in the spat between Tali, Ragan, and Prazza. Tam walked up and got between those three. It was about to be a two against one and Ragan was about to end it.

"We need to think of a plan of action soon," Tam said. Tali, Ragan, and Prazza looked at them and then at each other and turned their backs to each other, there were peace at least for now. Prazza then walked over to Ali.

"Ali, get up a map of this colony." Ali gets a map and Ragan comes up.

"I don't trust them but this building is surrounded by mechs and a Cerberus shuttle is landing nearby, so we'll just hack those mechs to keep them busy. So that I can beat the living shit out of you Prazza."

Tali laughed at Ragan. "That sounds like a good plan except for beating Prazza to death." Tali and her team went to the area and hacked the mechs. "Leave the mechs in subdue mode, I don't want to give Cerberus anymore reasons to attack us, let's move." Tali and the team moved, Prazza however stayed behind with the mechs.

"Those bosh'tets deserve more than that," he muttered. He opened his omni-tool and set the mechs to 'kill' but a shot rang and startled him.

"Put it back to subdue or prepare to die," Ragan said. With a smug look on his face, Prazza did what Ragan ordered. Then they caught up with Tali.

**John**

The shuttle flew over the now abandoned human colony of Freedom's Progress, quickly descending unto a clear area and landing. As its engines powered down, its side door opened and from it emerged John, Miranda, and Jacob. It was night time on the colony, and an unsettling, eerie sensation hung in its cool, dry air. It was strange to see a colony that looked so lived-in to be completely devoid of all signs of life, the team stood at attention and assumed whatever caused this was still here in some form. Instead the hustle that bustle of people from this colony, there was quiet, in fact the only noise that could be heard aside John and his team's footsteps were the low, subtle hum or machines turning on. It wasn't long before the quiet was suddenly replaced by the ferocious roaring of gunfire.

The team went into cover as they saw mech coming out of the door firing at the team. Miranda overloaded the mech's shields and John lifted the mech with his singularity field. Jacob finished it with a throw field. More mechs were coming, including the dog-like mech called FENNR, they were especially dangerous as they could know them out of cover for the LOKI mechs to get a clear shot. "Stand down, I'll hand this." John got out the heave weapon, the arc projector. As the lightning-like bolt hits its first target, more targets were hit until the entire enemy strike team fell down.

John kissed the weapon. "Where were you when I was fighting Saren?" He had a big smirk.

Miranda cleared her throat. "Need a room?" She then looked at Jacob, who examined the destroyed mechs. "What is it?"

"Why did those mechs attack us? We're human," he said.

"Reprogrammed," Miranda said with a little confusion.

John frowned. "Do you think what reprogrammed the mechs also made the colony disappeared?"

"There's a chance?"

"Let's keep moving," John and the team stepped deeper into the colony, slowly and carefully looking around for clues, they moved into the next building was met with a surprising sight. Three Quarians marines stood up and aimed their weapons at the three intruders. He then heard the sound of guns being activated and saw Miranda and Jacob had their weapons out also. "Stop right there," Prazza said.

"Quarians," John said surprised.

"What are Quarains doing here? You don't think they're responsible for the missing colonists, do you," Jacob said.

"Quarians tend to keep to themselves, and there have been no records of their fleet being anywhere near the attacked colonies. Still can't be too careful…" It was bad the tension was so thick, but then another voice rang out.

"Prazza, you said you would let me handle this!" Tali moved herself between Prazza and the Cerberus agents. She glanced at the intruders. Her eyes widen. The person in the middle was John. "Wait! John?"

John immediately recognized who the Quarian was before him. It was the woman he loved, Tali. He looked up and down her body, it wasn't the same slender body from two years ago, her body was more toned, her voice was a little more deeper, and sexier than before, if that was even possible. John couldn't help but admire Tali's new suit, it was similar to her old suit, except it was much heavily armored with gold trim around the neck, and a decorative purple veil draped across her helmet. It was beautiful.

"I'm not taking any chances with Cerberus agents," Prazza bellowed.

"EVERYONE STAND DOWN," another familiar voice. "Put those weapons down!" Ragan came down and looked at John. He then grabbed his pistols. "I don't think so imposter."

Tali looked at John in disbelief. It looked just like him, and not only that he didn't age one bit, he looked the same as he did when he died two years ago. And now he was in the truce with the Alliance and Cerberus. "John… Is that… You're alive?"

John gave a slightly sad smile and took a small step forwards. It was enough to make the Quarians marines tense up and Ragan to aim for his head. "Remember that Geth data I gave you? Did it help you finish your Pilgrimage, Rookie?" Ragan lowered his weapons and motioned the Quarians to do the same.

Tali fought hard to hold back her tears. It was really him, only John called her Rookie and mean it. She composed herself, she couldn't look weak at in front of her team. "Yes… It did."

"I still don't trust them," Ragan had his gun lowered but he was in no mood to be lied to.

"Really, Ragan Ryu Kaiba," Ragan then looked at him and put his gun away.

"It is you. Shit, I heard you died." Ragan then looked at Prazza. "Prazza put your weapons away. NOW! This is definitely Commander Johnathan Ryu Shepard."

Prazza put his weapons away, "What's he doing with Cerberus? Is it because of the truce?"

"It must be," Ragan said. "Maybe we should ask." Tali looked to the Commander begging for a good excuse in her mind. She knew John, he was just as disgusted by their experiments as her and rest of the team were, there had to be a good reason, there just had to be.

John looked down. "I… I didn't have a choice. I died. Cerberus spent the last two years rebuilding me. In return they wanted me to help with them and the Alliance look into these colony disappearances."

Tali and Ragan gave a sigh of relief. "Maybe we can work together. We are looking for a young Quarian named Veetor," Tali said. Her team looked at them. Ragan turned around and aimed a gun at them.

"Isn't it odd for a Quarian to come to a remote Human colony," Jacob asked.

"Quarains can go to where they want for their Pilgrimage. Veetor liked the idea of helping a small colony. He was always… uh, nervous around crowds," Tali explained

"She means he was unstable," Prazza interrupted. "Combine that with a damaged CO2 scrubber and he's likely delirious." Ragan punched him.

"Don't interrupted your CO," Ragan said with venom.

"Alright, I'll help you, he may be a link for this whole thing," John said. Ragan nodded.

"Right. We need two teams to make it to Veetor anyways," Ragan looked at Prazza and gave him a murderous look. "And you need to be on your best attitude or the bullet will be waiting for you," he pointed at Prazza.

"Now were, working for the Humans," Prazza stated in disbelief. Tali glared at him, she would not have Prazza disrespect her now, not while she was in front of the man she loved. She faced the insubordinate Quarian and looked him in the eye.

"No, Prazza, you're working for me and Ragan," she said firmly. "You can either follow mine and his orders or you can wait on the ship. Either way, you won't disrespect me." Prazza scoffed. John smirked. '_That's my girl_,' he thought.

"Your people really hate Cerberus. What'd I miss," John said.

"They killed their people, infiltrated the Flotilla and tried to blow up one of their ships," Ragan answered. Prazza gave a murderous glared at him.

"Only because they had something that belonged to us," Miranda said.

"Children are not you FUCKING property," Ragan yelled at them. "Just because she was a biotic means nothing. People are not property. If they are, then I wouldn't be here right now because my ex-wife was always trying to make me stay with here instead of going to work."

Tali pointed at Miranda accusingly. "You tried to force a scared girl back to your labs," She hissed.

"What," John was shocked when he heard both of their answers.

"She was a human biotic ding from Cerberus, we sheltered her, so they attacked," Tali said. "Cerberus attacked the Idena, infiltrated it and killed the crew inside, luckily the captain sent the girl into a shuttle heading to Omega before he too was gunned down by Cerberus."

Ragan pointed his gun at Miranda. "You know what? I can make this end by telling the Alliance that you did illegal experiments when you have a truce with us."

John looked back at Miranda and frowned. "Once a terrorist, always a terrorist," he said with venom.

Miranda scoffed and crossed her arms. "They shouldn't have gotten in the way then."

"And now I have solid proof that can get your organization destroyed," Ragan said with a smile. Miranda then forgot about that, Ragan was a good person that is sneaky when it comes to find out about this.

"We'll work together then. Keep in radio contact," John said.

"Right," Tali said. John and his team started to leave the building. "John," he looked back. "It's good to have you back." He smiled and she waved at him.

"MOVE OUT," Ragan ordered.


	71. Chapter 44: Love at the Colony part 2

Chapter 44: Love at the Colony part 2

**Tali**

As Tali and her squad raced through the housing units, Tali couldn't help keep a huge smile off her face, he was back; the love of her life came back to her. It was a miracle, but then she became worried, so much has changed in just two short years. How was he dealing with it? She knew how strong John is, but dying then coming back to life would be stressful for anyone. It was like Ragan, John was brought back to life like Ragan – expect that it didn't cost over 4 billion credits. And then there was Cerberus and the Alliance, they may have brought him back but she didn't trust Cerberus, she had a sinking though that John was in danger but Ragan assured her that John would be okay.

"Tali, after we are done, I'm going to keep any eye on him," Ragan then felt Tali hug him. "I'm going to get a transfer so that I can be with him and tell him all that happened." Tali smiled when she heard that. For the first time, she felt happy and joy from Ragan's voice since the day John died. Ragan tortured himself by not eating, drinking, or do anything but staying in bed for a month. The Council understood what happened and gave him leave for that time.

A whirling sound snapped Tali out of her thoughts and she saw half a dozen drones heading towards John's position. Tali raised her comm. "John, we just spotted several drones heading you position."

"Thank for the head up, Rookie," John said before closing the comm link.

Prazza scoffed. "I can't believe we are helping them, just because of your infatuation with a human and him," he points at Ragan, "for being here."

Tali stopped and glared at Prazza. "What did you say?!"

"I'm taking over this mission. It's obvious that you're not in the right state of mind," Ragan then pulled a gun and aimed it for Prazza.

"You better rethinking that before I shoot you for Insubordination," Ragan threatened Prazza.

"What," Prazza then grabs the gun and breaks it by bashing it on the wall. "You can't anymore." What Prazza didn't know what Ragan had a gun that was modified to be hidden under his sleeve.

"I suggest you get…," Ragan saw Prazza try to punch him but blocks it before it hits him.

"You know what I'm talking about. The way you were talking to him. The way he looked at you," he said with venom. "Qaurians and Humans together, disgusting." Ragan grabbed Prazza by the neck.

"You want to talk someone that is not my cousin," Ragan pressed tightly on Prazza's neck. Tam and Ali tried to get tackle him but Ragan kicked them before they could do anything.

"You bosh'tet," Tali yelled.

"Look at you; fawning over an Alliance operative, the bastards that allowed Cerberus to attack and kill out our people, just because he wear the same face of a human you know, they'll betray us in the end," Prazza then felt Ragan's fist hit him in the stomach.

"That's a lie," Ragan said. "I known him because he is my family. You want to dishonor my family, you will get what is coming. Death that for sure."

Prazza scoffed. "They act so noble, but in the end they are all for themselves," Ragan punched Prazza again. "This is my squad now and we're going to grab Veetor."

"Prazza, you idiot," Tali responded. "Those mechs will kill you all, maybe you want to throw your life away but I won't let you throw other's lives away too." Prazza kicks Ragan in the groin, which releases him.

Prazza got out a gun and aimed for Tali, Tam and Ali looked at him shocked. "You have no say in this, not anymore. I'll see that you get tried for treason after this, not even your father will help you, in fact I would be doing him a favor." He nodded to his squad but before he could run, Ragan grabbed his gun and tried to shoot at Prazza. Tam and Ali looked back at Tali and then went ahead.

"Damn it!" Ragan opened his omni-tool. "Dragon! Prazza betrayed us. He took the squad ahead. They're going to take away Veetor before you get a chance to talk to him."

"Are you okay," John asked.

"I'm okay so is Tali. But hurry." They made their way to the courtyard. There they saw a YMIR mech rise up and targeting Prazza's squard. "Fuck this."

Tali get on her omni-tool. "Joh! Veetor activated an YMIR mech! It's attacking Prazza's team. I'll open the bay doors when you and your team get to cover. Ragan will give me a signal."

"My signal is this," He moved two fingers down from his temple to the chin. Tali nodded.

"Well, they did want to get to Veetor first," Miranda was heard.

"Got it."

Ragan watched as John's squad took cover. He gave Tali the signal, who tapped her omni-tool and overrides the bay's door. The shutter opened and John's squad ran in and took cover behind some boxes. Just as Tali turned her head towards the others, she saw a dead, limp Quarian body flying in the air; Tali went closer and saw it was Ali, she almost gagged as she saw her body, missing an arm and a leg; the explosion of a rocket had killed her. She Tam trying to crawl to cover, only to let out a scream as the heavy mech stepped on his legs and gun him down at pointblank range. Prazza was the only one left, firing desperately to keep the behemoth mech at aby, but the last thing Tali and Ragan hears is Prazza screams fill the air. Next John and his team came in, and the giant mech targeted them, enough was enough she ran to John's team. Ragan jumped on the buildings and started meditating for the perfect moment.

"John. Ragan and I want to help." John nodded.

"Forget it, your team tried to betray us before like he…"

"Lawson, shut the fuck up or I will spark the shuttle at the nearest sun and strap you outside so the sun can burn you up," Miranda glared at him, but kept her mouth shut. "Alright, Miranda and Tali overload the mech's shields. Jacob take down its armor. Ragan, you get your 'ninja' ready. I'll be the distraction." John activated his tech-armor and loaded his shotgun and rushed towards the mech. He fired several rounds at the hulking monstrosity gaining its attention from his squad. Ragan got his sword ready and jumped down from the building. Tali watched as John faced down the one-ton mech. Fear grinned her. Not for her own safety but John's. She had already lost him once before, she would not be able to bear see him die again. Miranda and Tali drained the mech's shields while Jacob placed several fiery rounds in the hulk's armor. Ragan did an electrical slash on it, stunning it. The mech tried to take aim after a few seconds at the team but John kept firing so it could focus on him, until it cornered him.

"Oh, no," Tali and Ragan gasped.

"Shit," he cursed. A single gunshot was heard and the YMIR's shields flashed as they deflected the shot. It was Tlai as she charged the mech, firing pistol rounds around its head. Ragan covered her with his M-13 Raptor. There was a flash of light as it launched a rocket, and Tali jumped away just as it exploded behind her. She was just far enough to prevent injury from the rocket's blast radius, but its concussive force was still enough to send her rolling tumbling on the ground a few extra feet. The chaos of the moment caused her to drop her gun far out of reach.

"No you don't," John said as he shot the mech with his arc projector point-blank. When the mech was stunned enough he climbed the mech's back, Ragan quits shooting. With John's left arm holding on the heavy mech's head, the Human pulled out his M-358 Talon and shot it three times, pointblank at its optic sensor. He took his arc projector and fired. He jumped away from the mech, just as its head split open form the explosion; all the circuitry within utterly destroyed.

"Damn boy, you haven't forgotten how to shoot," Ragan yelled out. He was laughing

Tali ran to John. "Are you okay," she saw John smiled.

"I am now," he said. Tali immediately threw her arms around him as she began to cry. They held each other tightly. A short while passed and the moment was suddenly interrupted as they heard yelling coming from the other side of the area. It was Miranda and Jacob, walking out of one of the buildings with a male Quarian in a red suit. He was struggling desperately, his eyes held great fear.

"N-No! No no no no! It's not safe out here! The monsters will get us! We have to hide! We have to go back inside," the Quarian fearfully yelled.

"That's Veetor! What are they doing?" Tali ran up to Miranda and Jacob. John and Ragan followed.

"Commander, we found out who's been attacking our colonies. You're not going to believe this," Jacob said as both John and Tali reached them. Ragan stayed back for a while, examining the mechs.

"Jacob and I investigated the area. We found this Quarian, who managed to piece together security footage of the attack. The Collectors are the ones responsible. The Illusive Man's theory was right," Miranda said with confusion.

"Th-the monsters! That's why we have to hid, before they return," Veetor exclaimed, still traumatized over what he had seen.

"The Collectors? I've heard of them back on Mindoir… but I always thought they were a myth," John said. "You said we have actual footage of the attack?"

"Yes, as well as various energy readings that the quarian got with his omni-tool," Miranda paused before talking. "Still, we should take him with us so he can be properly interviewed."

"What? No," Ragan came up with an angered face. "He's sick! He needs medical attention, not an interrogation! And the Admiralty Board contacted the Alliance for me to bring him back. You take him, then everything will to Hell for me. I don't want to end my military career because of some Cerberus lackeys wanted the Quarian I need to get back to his home."

"If he goes with you, we may never get that omni-tool data," Miranda scoffed but Ragan didn't like the sound of it. He pulled his sniper rifle out and aimed for her head.

"Look at him, he's obciously traumatized. I doubt we can learn anything useful from him. He's helped us by getting us footage and the data of what happened. Veetor goes home," Ragan stated. "I am well known about this and the colonies being disappearing out of thin air but you can't force him to go somewhere that he needs to be at somewhere else."

"But Cerberus protocol states…"

John crossed his arms. "This is not Cerberus' mission. This is Alliance, Spectres, Council, and Cerberus mission. Those others will not go for Cerberus doing this. Veetor goes home, that's final!"

Miranda sighed. "Very well, Commander." Miranda gritted her teeth.

"We got what we came for. We should leave quickly before pirates and slavers shows up," Jacob joked about that. Ragan didn't find it funny.

"You two head back to the ship, I'll join you shortly," John said.

"Just remember, the Illusive Man doesn't want us to be here longer than necessary," Miranda said bluntly.

"Well, the Illusive Man will have to learn about disappointment." Miranda walked back towards the shuttle and Jacob walking close behind.

"You came back, Keelah, I hope this isn't another dream," Tali said while closing her eyes because tears were coming. "It's so hard… knew I had I lost you forever."

John kissed her. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I know you hate Cerberus, but will you join me on my mission? I would really like to have Tali'Zorah nar Rayya at my side."

"I'm Tali'Zorah vas Neema now. I joined the Neema when I returned to my people. I have a mission coming up, John. But once it's over, I'm all freed up."

"I'm glad to hear it." He looked into her glowing eyes and leaned forward. John planted a kiss on the mouthpiece of her helmet. "Until then, be safe, sayang."

"You too." With a squeeze, their hug ended.

"What about you Sergeant Ragan Ryu Shepard?"

"Its Commander now," John looked at him. If Ragan was going to join the mission; that means the crew had to call them by their first name. "But I'm not sure. Right now, I have to report to Hackett about getting transferred under you wing."

They said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. John looked back at the walking quarian and new Commander Shepard.

"You'll see Tali. When we started adventuring again, it'll just be like old times," he shouted.

Tali looked back and smiled. "No, better."


	72. Chapter 45: Second Flight of Normandy

Chapter 45: Second Flight of Normandy

As the mission completed on Freedom's Progress, John and the team returned to the Cerberus facility to brief TIM, however the trip back wasn't exactly peaceful. Ever since John made the decision to allow Veetor to go back with Tali and Ragan, Miranda had her displeasure known, and her and John had been at each other's throats for the ride, must to Jacob's annoyance.

"Your foolish concern for the Quarian almost cost vital information and I'm not even sure we can trust that other Human," Miranda was angered. She always believed you get what is needed no matter what.

John frowned. "It's call having a heart, something you Cerberus people wouldn't know about! I remember when you created biotic Rachni, had one of Alliance Admirals turned into a monster, you experimenting on Rachni then releasing it on worlds, and a lot of other things. And they have a name, Ragan Shepard and Tali'Zorah. You should remember that!"

"I'm starting to think it was a mistake to bring you back, your bleeding heart could be a liability."

"I almost welcome it, at least I wouldn't hear your bitching all the time. Step in line or get shot," Miranda and Jacob looked at him with wide eyes. John always cared about his crew, family, and friends, but when someone tells him that they are nothing to him, he will defend them. But before John could speak, Jacob beat him to the punch.

"Goddammit, enough! You tow have been at it for hours," Jacob looked at Miranda. "Whether you like it or not, Miri, John's the leader of this squad. So it was his call." Miranda scoffed. "Don't even do that, his squad, his rules, his doings. Plain and simple."

John sat back in the seam and smirked. "Exactly." Jacob looked at him.

"And you, if we're going to be working together, maybe you should stop antagonizing the only ally you got now with the Alliance," he said. John looked at Miranda and she looked back, Jacob was right, this was going to be a long and deadly mission and the last thing they needed was to be in a passing match all the time. John had seen what happen when squad unity was in chaos, and it wasn't pretty.

The Spectre sighed. "Fine, as long as she knows who's in charge."

"I'll follow his command, if he can get the job done… correctly." John and Jacob sighed.

"I'll take what I can get, I'm getting tired of playing peacekeeper all the time," Jacob said.

The rid was silent for the rest of the way back to the facility. John stood in the same room as the column of light enveloped him once again. John was face to face with TIM and now with Admiral Hackett. John started to wonder, if TIM ever leaves that place because he was sitting in the same chair form the last time they met. TIM took a sip of his wine and looked at John, finally acknowledging his presence.

"Shepard, good work on Freedom's Progress," the same smug tone that John hated was heard. "The Quarians forwarded their findings from Veetor's debriefing. It had no new data but surprising giving our history; it was a new olive branch."

"Having friends pays off, especially girlfriends," Hackett smirked when John said that. "You could try; it would help with that stick up your ass."

"Yes… How… colorful of you," TIM said. He was obviously disturbed by the notion of a Human and a Quarian being together. "Diplomacy is great when it works, but difficult when people already see you as a threat. It works both ways. You scratch their back and they scratch yours."

Hackett looked at TIM, "Gee, I wonder why…" he said sarcastically.

TIM ignored his remark. "More importantly, you confirmed the Collectors were behind the abductions."

John narrowed his eyes. "You don't seem that surprised. Why do I get the feeling you knew this already?"

"He didn't but he had a theory," Hackett said. "The only thing that made since was if the Collectors were doing this, then the Reaper threat might be connected."

TIME took another drab from his cigarette, "I had my suspicions, I – well, we – need proof. The Collectors are enigmatic at best."

Hackett looked at John and sighed. "So far, every little is known about them. I don't know what else to say about them other than they just appear out of nowhere."

John signed. "Ok, so what do we know about them, TIM?"

"They periodically travel to the Terminus Systems, seeking out seemingly unimportant items or specimens. Usually for their technology. When the transaction is complete, they disappear as fast as they got there, back behind the unmapped Omega-4 Relay."

"Wait, why is the Relay unmapped? What do we know about it," John was curious now.

"It's unmapped because it changes location randomly in the Omega System," Hackett said. "It is different than the other Mass Relays. Instead of being blue, it is red-orange in the middle."

"And that only no ship passing through it has ever returned," TIM said. "Our best guess? The Collectors' ship must react differently to the relay, allowing for safe passage. And advanced IFF or if they can manipulate relays."

"Well… that's a nice picture…," John said.

"Yes, if they can manipulate relays, it's just further evidence of their connection to the Reapers," Hackett nodded with the TIM's statement.

"Agreed, because if I remember correctly, Saren and Sovereign manipulated the Mu Relay so that they can get in and find the Conduit," Hackett said. He looked over to TIM, who shook his head.

"The treat's real enough. But how do you know the Reapers are involved," Hackett and TIM looked at John. For the first time, John was confused about this if he asked a question like what he just did.

"The patterns are there in the data, buried. The Council and Alliance want to believe that the Reaper threat died when Sovereign died, you and I know better. But then they changed when we gave them proof about Reaper technology. They analyzed it and found out the Geth didn't create it." He took another drab. "I won't wait while they're twiddling their thumbs when we are on the edge of oblivion, we need to take the fight to them."

"Agreed," John then saw Hackett cross his arms. "But, I can't do this alone. I will need a team."

Hackett and TIM smirked. "We have a list of soldiers, scientists, and mercenaries already; you'll get dossiers on the best of the best. Finding them and convincing to join your cause will be difficult, but you're a natural leader," TIM was done talking.

"And I have some of the best soldiers coming to help you, four of them you may remember very well," Hackett said with a ear-to-ear grin.

"Damn, you both work fast," John was impressed.

"We'll continue to track the Collectors. When they make their next appearance, I'll notify you and your team. Be ready," Hackett said. TIM had to allow this one because Cerberus was only doing the ground attacks, not the spying.

"So I do the heavy listing again, glad to see that hasn't change," John said sarcastically.

"Unfortunately, greatness comes at a price, something you should know all too well," Hackett said. "But first three things before you leave."

"First, find Mordin Solus, he's a brilliant Salarian scientist. He's on Omega," TIM then gave a smirk. "He may have knowledge on how to counteract these 'seeker swarms' at Veetor put it."

"And the other thing," John asked.

"I have got you reinstated both as Alliance Navy Solider and Council Spectre," Hackett was smart but that smart was good. "You have been listed MIA for two years and if anyone asks, this is the story you tell them: You were on the planet we found you and you went crazy, you thought you died so you started calling yourself something else and when we got you, you were immediately taken to get help and it took two years to fix you."

"Okay…," John wasn't too sure about that. "And the third thing?"

"We have a pilot that you can trust and someone that is good for you," Hackett then looked at TIM. "Hackett out." His hologram vanished.

John raised his brow. "I wonder who?"

TIM turns off his side of the comm link. "Aw, you forget the cripple already? I'm hurt, really," a voice teased.

John turned around and eyes went wide. "Joker?" He was in complete disbelief of this.

Joker smirked as he walked in, wearing his Alliance uniform. One thing he noticed that Joker was no longer had to use his crutches; he was walking alone although he still walked with a limp. "The one and only. Just like olds," he said.

"I see you head's gotten even bigger, if that was possible," Ragan came up. He laughed at Joker.

"Pick on the cripple," John quickly defended Joker.

"Hey, it's not bragging, it you can back it up," Joker said with a smirk. Joker held out his hand. "Welcome back, Commander."

John took his hand and shook it then pulled him into a huge hug, lifting him off the ground. First Tali and Ragan and now Joker seeing his old friend made him more emotional than he was used to being. But after everything he been through, he didn't care. "I can't believe it…," he fought the tears. Ragan patted John's shoulder.

Joker strained. "I missed you too, Staff-Commander. Hackett promoted you. But don't break the cripple here."

"Go easy on him. He needs to relax a little," Ragan said. John instantly let go, Joker fell on the floor as he rubbed his head sheepishly. He had forgotten how strong he was now. "Heh, sorry," he said while helping Joker off the ground. "But what are you doing here? Both of you?"

"I got transferred," Ragan said. He was proud of it. "I was stationed on the SSV Washington and Hackett messaged me to be under your command. And told me that I'm your CXO like last time. I even didn't have to file out a transfer notice, he messaged me and told me he did it."

Joker looked at John, "Helping you of course, you think I was going to pass up serving under you again, especially after…" He lowered his head in shame, Joker told him about what happened after John died. When Joker told the crew of what happened, the team was silent; there was lots of crying aboard. A lot of the crew blamed Joker, for his death, especially Tali who was completely hysterical with sadness. Joker blamed himself for the last two years, but when he had gotten a call on John being back, he instantly packed his bags and was transferred from the MSV Broken Arrow to John's command, free of charge in return. Ragan blamed Joker and himself. He said that if he was there, he would have saved John. "You probably hate my guts, huh?"

"No I don't. Being dead then to make you forget about grudges," John laughed and the two men laughed. "I still can't believe it's you, man." They took a walk around the base.

"Look who's talking, I saw you get spaced," Joker said.

John scoffed. "Got lucky with a lot of strings attached. So tell me, how bad?"

Ragan sighed. "It all fell apart without you, John. Everything you stirred up and the council wanted it gone. They knew something."

John shook his head. "Of course they did. Hackett told me that I just got reinstated as a Spectre and soldier."

"You doing better than me. I quit the Spectres." John looked at Ragan. "I can't deal with it anymore. Too much memories."

"I'm sorry. What about the team?"

"The team was broken up, records sealed, and I was grounded for a month. Then Cerberus and the Alliance called, and the rest is history. Joker was grounded for a full year then got on the SSV Broken Arrow and got the same call I got."

"You really trust TIM," Ragan and Joker looked at John.

"TIM," both men looked at John and was confused.

John shrugged. "Hey, I was getting tired of calling him by his full time. The Illusive Man."

Joker chuckled and Ragan shook his head. Joker then placed his hand on John's shoulder. "Anyway, I don't trust anyone with a bigger paycheck than me but they aren't all bad. Saved you and let me walk without crutches." He smirked. "And then there's this, they only told me last night."

The lights went on and revealed a beauty of a ship. It was white, with Alliance and Cerberus colors. It looked like the first Normandy, John's original ship. "Holy…," Ragan and Joker smiled when John went to the window in complete awe.

"Yeah, John, meet the SSV Normandy SR-2," Ragan said. "It's good to be home, huh John?"

"Fuck yeah," John said with a smirk. "Let's see what this baby can do, Joker get to your station. Same with you Ragan."

Both of them smirked and saluted. "Aye, aye sir," they both said.

The door open as the Normandy started her engines; the beast was ready to be unleashed. Her engines came to life and slowly but surely got out of the docking bay. With the ship now free, she roared at the taste of her new-found freedom.

The ship was just as impressive inside as she was outside. The new Normandy was larger in size, but it bore many similarities to its predecessor, including its appearance and general layout. This familiarity help John a lot in getting over the sudden pause in his life had taken. A woman some came up to him. '_Huh, one of the new crewmembers,_' he thought. She had short red hair; the woman herself was short and one the petite side.

"I'm Yeoman Kelly Chambers; I'll be your administrative assistant," she warmly greeted. "I help monitor the crew with our CXO. It's an honor to meet you, Staff-Commander."

"Glad to have you on the team Kelly." She nodded and went to her station. John went to see Joker and Ragan.

"Can you believe it, Commander? My baby's back, she fits me like a glove," Joker said excitedly. He rubs his head on the back of the seat, John shook his head at his pilot's antics. Ragan looked over to Joker with a curious face. "And leather seats! Military may set hardware standard, but they could care less if the seats breathed. This is civilian comfort by design."

Ragan was about to say something but a voice beat it to him. "Reproduction is not meant to be perfect in design, Mr. Moreau. Seamless improvements were made."

Ragan quickly grabs his gun but John places his hand on his shoulder and shook his head. Ragan growled.

"Uh, John, I must be out of it because I think the ship just talked back," Joker said.

"Yeah I hear it too," Ragan then tries to bite John's hand but it quickly gets off of him. He and Joker looked to the side of the cockpit, a blue orb appeared. "Who the fuck are you?"

"I am the Normandy's Artificial Intelligence, I am Enhanced Defense Intelligence or what the crew likes to call me, EDI," it had a female voice. Ragan gut the shotgun ready and aimed for console.

"Ragan, don't," John said which made Ragan place the shotgun back to his side.

"Fine, don't break the boss's toy," he mumbled. "God, I hate AIs and VIs."

"I don't think I'm going to like this John, I like it when the Normandy was nice and quiet. Now she's got this thing, it's like ship cancer," Joker said grimly.

"You can adjust if you want to be offline, a VI, or an AI," EDI stated. Ragan got the idea and shut it offline and placed a lock on it.

"Good, not I don't have to see or hear that 'Vanguard of our Destruction'," Ragan made it sound funny and Joker and John laughed. He was telling the truth about that. The Reapers are AIs with organic parts.

"Calm down, this ship is just a copy, there's nothing here that was even part of the real Normandy," John said. Ragan looked at Joker.

"There's us, I have to take what I can get, the last two years have been hell," Joker complained. "Even with an AI spying on us – well use to until Ragan shut it down – it'll be better like the old days."

John rolled his eyes. "Let's hope so, I died after all." Ragan palmed his face.

Joker sat in the chair. "God, you're such a downer." John looked at EDI, after Ragan turned her back online, he didn't know what to think about the AI, after all his run-ins with the Geth and Sovereign especially he's learned to be wary of synthetic. He then thought about Tali, how was she going to react to an AI on the ship, he shook his head, he would worry about that later.

"I turned it back online because TIM says if it goes offline, the Alliance will then lose tabs on us," Ragan shook his head. "Probably another lie. Fuck this."

"As for you, try not give Joker too much a hard time, same with you Ragan," John said.

"Of course, Staff-Commander," she said. "Logging you out."

"Joker, Ragan. Get us to Omega, I say it's time to get this party on the road."

"Got it," Joker said. Ragan starts typing.

"Want me to be with you at Omega," Ragan asked. John nodded. "Okay. I'll get the weapons ready from the armory… if I can find it…"

John smiled as he got to the CIC, Joker and Ragan were right; it was good to be home.


	73. Chapter 46: Old Friends, New Friends

Chapter 46: Old Friends, New Friends

John was in the shower of his new room, feeling the hot water on his skin had never felt this good, being dead for two years, made John never take the small stuff for granted. He got out of the shower and made his way into his room. The room was bigger than the one he had on the old SR-1, with a deck and a fish tank, Cerberus really went all out when they built the ship. He made his way to his bed and frowned, there was a Cerberus uniform on the bed, and instantly threw them off his bed and into the trash.

"Like hell," he said. Cerberus may have given him a second chance, but that by no means changed his mind of the organization. Sure they helped rebuild him and made the new Normandy but they were still terrorists. John went to the holographic interfaced drawer, to find something new to wear.

"Let's see, nope hate suits… what's a lab uniform doing here… ah hah!" John chose brown sleeveless shirt with a vest and black cargo pants, with fingerless gloves and his combat boot. The clothes reminded him of his time of Mindoir and plus they were comfortable. "And what do we have here, I can equip my armor too… sweet!" John spent the couple of hours getting his gear together. John sighed after two hours and got his M-358 Talon, arc projector. M-99 Saber, M-90 Indra, and AT-12 Raider. "All done." After he was done, it was time to meet the crew.

"Hello, Staff-Commander," the first one John met was his assistant, Kelly Chambers, a real bubbly girl, she seem nice enough which asked the question why would she mixed herself with Cerberus. "I have to say, it's such an honor to meet you Commander."

"Please just John. There is another Commander Shepard here. And I'm not that good with formalities. So what are you duties."

"I observe the crew, everyone knows how risky the mission will be, and we all know some of us won't be coming back, I help them through the stress."

"So the ship's therapist?"

"Yes, in a way. My door is open 24/7 so don't be shy."

"Uh thanks, but Tali usually helps me with the stress."

"Who is Tali?"

"My girlfriend, she's coming on the ship after her mission, but she doesn't like Cerberus at all. She's a Quarian."

Kelly's eyes lit up. "A Human and a Quarian, oh how romantic!" John was taken aback by her reaction; he didn't expect a Cerberus member to call his relationship with Tali romantic. He half expected for her to be disgusted by it. "You have my blessing, John."

"I'm surprised to hear that, don't Cerberus hate aliens and human-alien relationships like Terra Firma?"

"Not at all, while we look out for Human interest, but that doesn't mean we hate aliens. We are with a truce with the Alliance and the Council because of what is going on right now." She paused for a second. "I love Humanity, but I also love Asari, Quarian, Turian, Salarian, Hanar, Vorcha, Drell, Krogan, Geth," that made John flinch, "Volus and Elcor."

"Huh, quite the positive thinker aren't you? Except the fact that you love Geth."

"What can I say, I'm a people person. Well I better get back to work, see you later John."

John continued his rounds, meeting more of his crew, they all looked at him with a mix reverence, respect and little fear. Then he surviving members of the first Normandy onboard – well not all of them. They've been pleasant so far; his favorites had to be Kenneth Donnelly and Gabriella Daniels down in engineering, a real comedy duo those two was with Ken's bad jokes and Gabby keeping him in line. They were Alliance like John, proudly of it but when he died and the Alliance kept everything under wraps, they quite the Alliance because they felt the Spectre was being disrespected. But later got back in the Alliance after the Alliance made a call to have them in engineering. The accepted it. John found it amazing he could inspire people even as he was dead. He went into the med bay to meet the teams new nurses, and too his surprise there were two familiar faces.

"Hello Commander," Chakwas said with a smile.

"Hello," Chloe Michael came up with her hand offering for a shake. John took her hand and shook it.

"Doc? What the hell are you doing here," John asked as he hugged the older woman. "I guess your mother nature is still with us, right mom."

"I saw you go down with the first Normandy, so when I heard you were coming back, how could I not join them? And you don't have to call me mom," Chloe chuckled quietly.

"I'm flattered, but you and Joker are now considered parts of the treaty right?"

"I know, but after everything that has happened with Saren and Sovereign, and for the Alliance to cover it up, it was like a slap to the face. But then their colonies started to disappear and Cerberus asked for help also because they be monitoring the colonies as well. You deserved better, Commander." John and Chakwas continued to talk while Chloe was working. They were talking about the old days and what the others were up too, and John was sadden to hear the crew didn't keep in contact but Ragan was the only one that did that. But Ragan didn't get in contact with Wrex, Liara, and Garrus for a while. And Jane, John's twin, committed suicide a year ago on the anniversary of John's death, so what the Alliance says because it was not true. It turned out that she was stationed on Horizon and the Alliance had to come clean. When John and the Normandy died, their team effectively died. After John's death, Chakwas was posted at the Mars Naval Medical Center. Missing the excitement of a starship, Chikwas got the call from Alliance and got posted a position on the Normandy SR-2 as the ship's Chief Medical Officer and Chloe was her assistant.

"But are you sure about this? This mission could be a possible suicide mission like last time."

Chakwas chuckled. "Saren and Sovereign were possible suicide missions, not real suicide missions but we made out okay." The then grew sad and lowered her head. "Almost okay…" John knew what she was talking about, the day that Ragan die but was brought back to life. But Ragan became darker than he used to be. More strict in everything. Before John's death, he would smile but now it was like he wasn't programmed in him mind to smile that much. A day they never wanted to relive ever again.

"How is Ash and the others doing? We were supposed to see them after Tali dropped off her gift but then…" John stopped and remembered what happen. It was painful for them. His death wasn't something he wanted to live by.

"It was hard… after your memorial, some of us just couldn't go to your funeral, Joker and I went out of respect, but like I said it was hard… Ragan didn't bother to come. When he heard the news, he tried to commit suicide. After the funeral, Councilor Anderson pardoned General Williams, and reinstated his status as General; the Williams family name has finally been redeemed. All thanks to her working with you."

John smiled a little, even though that was nothing more than symbolic gesture, but he knew Ash would be happy to her family name being redeemed. "How did Ragan tried to do the suicide approach?"

"He took his sword and threw it in the air above him. He then got on his knees and the blade went through his chest. Luckily it didn't go that deep. It just penetrated the skin and some muscle but nothing too serious," Chakwas said like she saw the whole thing. "I was operating on him after that. It took five months for him to get healed."

"Damn," John was surprised. Ragan trying to commit suicide was the last thing he had on his mind and never thought of it. "What about my sister?"

"She is stationed on Horizon like I said but I'm not so sure what for. Kaiden and Ash are with her." Chakwas got up and started waving her omni-tool across John's body.

"Uh, doc?"

"Oh sorry, just checking on your implants, making sure Cerberus didn't put any nasty surprised in your body, when you were rebuilt. Stand up." John stood up and Chakwas continued to scan him. "Ah, good, no signs of your body rejecting your implants and cybernetics. No nasty control chips. You've got a clean bill of health."

"Thanks doc." John walked out of the med-bay and met with Miranda, he really didn't want to have to talk to her but she was the XO of the ship, meaning she took orders from Ragan and John. She was also a member of the ground team so he had to at least play nice. John came into Miranda's room, the Spectre was quite impressed with the set up, it was not as nice as his room, but it was lot nicer than his old room. There in the center was Miranda at her desk, doing paperwork. "Miranda," he said curtly.

"John," she said curtly. "For whatever reason, the Illusive Man is very impressed with you, I'm eager to see if you can live up to expectations on this mission."

John smirked. "Bitchy right out of the gate, afraid you'll no longer his favorite."

Miranda glared at him. "Don't be ridiculous."

"Looks like I hit a nerve, good to know," John said. "Now I just need to make sure I hit if you disobey my command again."

"I've proven my value to the Illusive Man, let's hope you can do the same. And if I do disobey your command, just say so and I will change my output," John had to give the woman credit, she was one cool customer, and she did a good job of keeping her annoyance under the wraps. "Despite your attitude, I respect your abilities, but it's your motivations that concerns me. Let's hope you're an asset and not a liability."

"And maybe you should worry about yourself; I'll do my job, just do yours. So where to?"

"Finally decided to be civil human being, I see, I've looked over the dossiers I'd strongly recommend Mordin Solus, a Salarain professor on Omega. With the Collectors' ability to immobilize their victims, we'll need him to develop countermeasures."

"Yeah, sure whatever, just be ready to go. You and Ragan are coming. I'm going to see if Jacob is willing to come."

"I'm always ready."

"Huh, I bet." John said while walking out. For his final rounds, he talked to Jacob in the armor, who was talking to Ragan about new weapons that could help while cleaning guns. Unlike Miranda, John liked Jocob; unlike the woman Jacob didn't give him a headache from talking, mostly he was lot more sociable than Miranda. His quarters wasn't much to look at, tables full of weapons and little cot in the corner.

Jacob saluted. "Officer on deck." Ragan quickly gets off the table and salutes John.

"At ease, both of you," John said.

"So, do you know where we going?"

"You got to be kidding me," Ragan said. "We're going to Omega. Okay."

"Ragan, tell me about Omega."

"The place is an asteroid, in the Omega Nebula – Alliance changed the name because of a store named Omega Systems. It in the Terminus System. Pirates, thugs, mercenaries, and illegal shit goes on over there. The place is a haven of crime," Ragan then saw John went wide eyes. "It is lawless over there. No matter what, there is pain to be at every corner. Don't know who runs the place, and I'm not want to know."

John rubbed his forehead. "Something wrong, Commander," Jacob asked.

"Just had to deal with Miranda. Is she always… difficult?"

"She is. When I spying on Cerberus, I had to spy on their top operative and that Miranda Lawson," Ragan admitted. "It was a fucking pain the ass to deal with her."

Jacob chuckled. "Yeah, for as long as I know her, don't worry about… wait… you spied on us?" Ragan then pointed at the door and ran out. "Son of a bitch. Anyway, don't worry about it, she means well."

"I sensed you had history with her, when you called her Miri," John said.

"An old nickname from childhood. Back then she was the sweetest girl you ever met, but…," Jacob paused trying to collect his thoughts, "…things changed."

John raised a brow. "How so?"

"Uh sorry Shepard, but if you want to get the story, you'll have to talk to her."

"Damn, I don't want to deal with her," John then heard the intercom opened.

"John, we're close to Omega, better get ready."

"Thanks Joker," John said. He looked at Jacob. "Suit up, Jacob."

Jacob gave a sharp salute, "Yes sir!"

"You don't have to salute me," John said before walking out of the door.


	74. Chapter 47: Professor part 1

Chapter 47: Professor part 1

"Wow this is a dump," John muttered. Omega was a far cry from bright and almost cheer atmosphere of the Citadel, while the Citadel is bright; Omega was dark, easy for two-bit thugs to sneak up on unsuspecting victims. And the worse part of John was the smell, a sickening mix of fecal matter, dead bodies, and desperation. What a well-respected Salarian professor doing here was beyond him. "You sure he's here?"

"Yep, Cerberus have been monitoring Dr. Solus for months, he's here," Jacob said.

"Let's just hurry up, I don't want to stay here longer than I need to," Miranda said.

"Well I'm afraid we will be disappointing the Cerberus bitch," Miranda glowed blue and tried to attack Ragan but Jacob got between them. Ragan never liked Cerberus but working with was the last thing he do. "I rather be with the Alliance than be working with Cerberus. Matter fact I rather French kiss a Vorcha than work with the people this bitch," he pointed at Miranda.

"Just cool down," Jacob said.

Miranda then looked at him before calming down, "We got three dossiers, all for Omega."

"A little dirt is not going to hurt you, Lawson," John said then heard Ragan laugh. "Come one." As they walked they met a Batarian moving up to them, he was wearing brown armor, John and the team got ready for trouble. John narrowed his eyes at the Batarian, two years dying didn't change how he felt about Batarians. John tried to keep his temper under control. "The fuck you want, blink," John growled.

"Welcome to Omega, Human. Aria wants to see you," he said like he was unfazed by John's hostility.

"And if I refuse," John said coldly. The Batarian laughed.

"This is Omega, Human. You don't refuse the empress, not without losing your life," he said. Ragan pulled his M-3 Predator and aimed for the Batarians head.

"We refuse. Tell your boss or we kill each one. You don't know who we are and what we are capable of," Ragan said grimly. The Batarian looked at him and gave a growl.

"Whatever, how about you leave, you're making mine and my cousin's blood boil," John said. The Batarian left and John calmed down. Ragan put his weapon back on the magnet that was installed on the upper hip part of the armor.

"I know how you feel about Batarians, but I suggest you calm down. Emotional strain worsens the scaring," Miranda said.

John sighed. "Right. So, who's Aria?"

"Aria T'Loak, she's the leader of Omega, has something of an ego problem, hence the nickname the 'Empress of Omega'," Jacob said. "Maybe we should speak to her; its good idea to get her on our good side." Ragan nodded in agreement.

"The last thing we need is another Prazza'Reegar incident," Ragan walked to the corner and lifted two fingers. "Careful, I suggest we act casual. Blood Pack is here," he looked around and saw the Blue Suns coming and stop to talk with them. "Blue Suns? What's next the Eclipse?" And some Eclipse merc came up and started talking. "Shit, something must be up. I never seen those three merc groups stay in one place without killing each other." John nodded and walked over to him.

"We can deal with that later," John said.

They walked the desolate halls of Omega, until they met up with an older man and a Batarian. By the looks of it, the Batarian was roughed up, pretty badly from being in the man's company, usually John would stop something like this, but with a Batarian he would make an exception. "Please, you have to help me," the Batarian pleaded.

"No one said you can talk, jackass," the man said while delivering a kick to the face.

"You Zaeed Massani," Ragan asked.

"Who the fuck want to know," the man's accent hard to tell what where he came from. '_Must be British or an Aussie,_' Ragan thought.

"Alliance and Cerberus," Miranda said.

Zaeed turned around, the man was wearing a brown armor, and he had lot of scars on his face no doubt from years. The biggest one was on the right side of his face from the eye area down to his mouth; John wondered what the story with that one was coming from. "Huh, so you're my client? Have to say I was expecting more from the great Savior of the Citadel," Zaeed said.

John rolled his eyes. "I could show you old man," that made Zaeed chuckle.

"Fiery, for little punk, I think we'll get along fine," he said. "And who are this three?"

"Name's Ragan. This is Miranda and this is Jacob," Ragan pointed at himself to Miranda and Jacob, Zaeed followed the finger to make sure he saw them correctly as they were labeled.

"I assumed you've been briefed," Jacob came up next to John.

"Cerberus sent everything I need to know. You, the Council, and Alliance is having a truce. They're paying me a lot of money, so I did my homework," Zaeed then saw the Batarian try to get up but Ragan quickly shot the Batarian's shoulder. "Damn it, quicker than me."

"Not many mercs would sign on for a possible suicide mission," Ragan stated. John glared at him and shook his head.

"Most mercs don't get an offer like the one your three clients sent me. Ninety million credits," the team looked at Zaeed with shocked looks. If they pay ninety million and over four billion for this mission alone, then something else must be a stake that Hackett and TIM wasn't telling them.

"My contacts said we were picking up one man, not two," Miranda looked at the Batarian.

"Don't let it bother you. Batarian asshole. He pissed off someone rich enough to hire me, hell even for my alive rates too," Zaeed was shocked. Ragan gave a smile.

"Please… I didn't do it…," the Batarian said weakly. Zaeed kicked him and the Batarian shut up quickly.

"I said shut up." Ragan was going to like him. Ordering people like that must be some nerves.

"Good to have you aboard," John said.

"I assumed the Illusive Man told you about our arrangement?"

"No, I guess it decided to leave that out of the dossier," John was annoyed. When someone takes important information away from him or cover it, it always comes back to him and bits his ass.

"Good thing I asked." Zaeed comes up to John about a foot away form face. "Picked up a mission before this one. Ever heard of the name Vido Santiago." John shook his head. "He's the leader of the Blue Suns, one of them at least. He recently captured a refinery on Zorya, the company want them dealt with."

"We can do this, but right the mission comes first."

"I know you got bigger fish to fry," he said. Zaeed motioned the Batarian to get up however the Batarian made a run for it. John and the team gets out of the way as Zaeed shot him in the back of the knee making the Batarian fall and roll on the floor in agony. Zaeed walked towards the wounded Batarian and picked him up. "Better turn this thing in before it starts to stink, I'll be ready for the next mission."

"Well that was easy, one down, three to go."

Omega, despite being a POS station it was full of life, rivaling that of the wards of the Citadel. They saw a lot of people outside a huge compound, Afterlife, the closest thing John could equate to it was Chora's Den for it seeder appearance with a bit of Flux mixed in. The team waded through the crowds; the bouncers saw them and waved them through immediately, to the chagrin of the people waiting in line. Inside was pretty impressive, full of the same energy as outside but magnified, the music was pumping with Asari and Human strippers at the top. If it wasn't for the fact John was on a mission, he would probably lose himself to the energy too. But then another fight might happen and Ragan might had to defend him when that Human and Turian tried to assault Tali when she was on a date with John. The team walked to the main bar, and head to the back and up the stairs to the platform where Aria T'Loak, the unofficial queen of Omega, sat watching over her domain.

"That's close enough," Aria didn't turn around. Her men aimed their weapons at the team, Ragan and Jacob raised their weapons.

"Stand down or all of you will die," Ragan forcefully said. Aria snapped her head to the left and her men put the weapons away.

"What the big idea," John asked.

"Stand still," a Batarian came up close to scan it. Right when he is about to scan, Ragan shoots the omni-tool.

"Try that and you will scanning that in your colon," Ragan put his weapon away. The Batarian look at Aria and waited for her.

"I would love to pay for that to happen," Aria laughed. "But it's not what I want. You want to talk, you get scanned."

"All you had to do is ask," John said while looking back at Ragan.

"I don't ask," Aria simply put it.

"I was told you could get me info," John said.

"I could, if you play nice," she turns around and looks at Ragan. "You, step forward." Ragan got up and three Turians draw weapon. "Kill him." One of the Turian tried to shoot but Ragan grabbed the arm and threw him into the others. Aria was shocked how quick Ragan dealt with that. Usually Humans would plea for mercy but not Ragan. She never knew him but something about him was interesting.

John scoffed. "The scan nearly done. And if you're looking for weapons, you not doing a good job." John lifts his pistol up.

"Can't be too careful with dead Spectres. That could be anyone wearing your face," the Asari said.

"He's clean," the Batarian then walked away from the John.

"Now what do you want to know," Aria asked before sitting on the couch and motioned John and Ragan to sit.

"No thanks, I rather stand," Ragan said. Aria looked at him and gave a smile.

"I wasn't asking."

"And I don't take orders from criminals," Ragan crossed his arms. He narrowed his eyes and Aria did the same.

"Fine, you can stand," she then sees John sit on the other side of the couch. "You want something. They always do."

"I'm looking for a scientist, Mordin Solus," John said. "Know where I can find him?"

"The Salarian doctor, last I heard he was trying to cure the plague in the quarantine," she smirked. "I always liked Mordin, he's a quick to heal you as he is to shoot you."

"What do you mean," Ragan asked.

"Solus, from what I heard, is former STG, meaning he's brilliant and dangerous."

"How do we get to him," John asked. He wanted this done but he need all the info before leaving.

"Take a shuttle to the quarantine zone, though I doubt they'll let you in," she then looks at Ragan. "Well him, they may because he is forceful."

"Thanks for the compliments," Ragan said sarcastically.

"Whatever, just one thing, you get off easy, because you don't know the rule. You won't get easy next time," she looked at both men.

"Oh and what would that be? Don't make any of you laws here," Ragan palmed his face when John said that.

"No, but I like that rule. The rule I'm referring to is this important. Don't. Fuck. With. Aria."

"I like it easy to remember," Ragan said.

"And if you forget, I'm the one that will toss your sorry ass out of an airlock," the Batarian said. Ragan gave a look that made the Batarian flinch. Ragan gave a cold chuckle towards him.

"Maybe or maybe not," Ragan said.

"Stupid and brave, I may actually like you," she said.

"Don't and say we did," Ragan then walked down the stairs with John. As they got to the team, they looked at the men. "What?"

"I'm… quite impressed with how you handled Aria," Miranda reluctantly admitted.

John smirked. "Stings, doesn't it?"

Miranda scoffed. "Please, don't get a big head, anyone can talk to a brute like Aria."

"Yeah. At first I thought you were crazy… but damn if she didn't actually end up liking you." Jacob actually sounded a bit puzzled.

"Whatever, she's got nothing on Tali," John said with a smirk. Miranda rolled her eyes.

The team went on their way to the slum; eventually they made their way to a Turian guarding the shuttle dock to the quarantine sector. He was arguing with a Human woman incensed at the Turian, for not being allowed back into the slums to protect her possessions from looters.

"I told you to get lost, lady," the Turian was annoyed. He starts messing with his weapon and a fresh thermal clip is injected. "The plague has the zone quarantined." The woman crossed her arms.

"I'm human, you ass. We're immune," she said annoyed. "Not let me get my stuff before looters get it."

"This thing affects every other race – but the Vorcha – out there, we're not taking our chances," he angrily stated. He then starts looking at her and aims for her head. The woman scoffed. John walked up to the Turian, the Turina looked at him with annoyance, expecting him to start complaining too. But Ragan came up with him.

"There's a Salarian in there, I got to get there and find him," Ragan stated.

The turian gave a sigh of relief. For once no one asking for to go in and get their possessions. "The doctor, crazy bastard trying to cure the plague. I wish him luck, but area is still locked done." The Turian saw Ragan pop his knuckles. "Our orders are to wait for the plague to be cured or the Blue Suns kills everyone inside."

"Listen, you're stuck here until then and that could take days, weeks, months, years. What you need is for someone to solve the problem, that is what I do," John said.

The Turian laughed at him. "Nice try. I'm not even sure about that." He raises his gun and tries to shot but Ragan quickly sweeps him off his feet.

"Don't even try," Ragan said. "We tried to do it your way, and now we are doing it our way. You let us in or I will beat you up so badly that Saren's beatings will look nothing compared to what I'm about to do to you." The Turian's eyes went wide.

"You think you can fix this? Be my guest, all the quarantine does is keep people in anyway. I'll radio in that you're coming in," the Turian then starts working on his comm link. "Yeah, I got four people coming in. Do not kill them. All four Human. One is wearing N7 armor, another is wearing CAT6 armor and the last two are wearing Cerberus outfits. Do not kill or shoot them." He then gets up and looks at the team.

"What," the outraged woman yelled. "You won't let me in, but you let them?!"

"You don't have a grenade launcher, lady. Now get lost," the Turian watched the woman leave the area.

"Lucky for us, Humans are immune to the plague," Miranda then saw Ragan nod.

"If that's the case, we need to be careful. Aliens will shoot us," John said. He looked back at the Turian and gave a nod to indicate that he is going in.

As the team walked through the entrance, Jacob was confused. "Yeah, I wonder why Humans are not affected. Diseases don't discriminate unless they're different amino acids."

"True but you have to remember, we have the best immune system," Miranda stated. "So do the Vorcha. Our immune systems are the highest and if we place that on the chart, the Vorcha and Krogan would be next."

"I guess we find out inside," Ragan said.

The quarantine zone reeked. The smell of dead burned flesh threatens to overwhelm the team. So far there was nothing and that made the group tense as they moved down yet another empty corridor. Empty, except for the corpses, this one sported two of them, a Batarian and a Turian, each in one end of the corridor. The Turian blood-flecked claws still half-closed around his own throat, long blue tongue lying limp on the floor where he lay and the Batarian sitting against the wall, blood still running from four blackened eyes.

"Damn, committed suicide doesn't compare to this," Ragan was shocked when they saw the bodies. "Can't image what else could have happened."

"My god, how can they live like this," Jacob went down and examined the body.

"Desperation," John said grimly. "The strong don't survive things like this, it's the desperate ones that do… and I doubt we want to meet them."

"Aria made the right call," Miranda noted. "Could you imagine this plague spreading to the rest of Omega? The station would be turned into a graveyard."

"Please don't get that image in my head," Ragan shook his head. "I don't want to image all the dead people. Anything Jacob?"

"Nothing but the plague is working fast," he then starts working on his omni-tool. "Damn, we better hurry, the plague will mutate and this time, it will be able to leave the quarantine zone."

"Which is why we're here, something doesn't smell right," John said.

"You can say that again," Miranda gagged.

"Now what I mean, don't you think it's a coincidence that only Humans and Vorcha are immune to this plague."

"What are you getting at," Jacob was puzzled. "That the plague was manufactured?"

"It would fit but we don't know much now," Miranda shook her head. "Mordin should know more." John and Jacob nodded.

"And if it was manufactured, it had to be something that had the technology that is required. But since none of the races except for Human and Vorcha are immuned, I say it had to be something that is more advanced. Like Geth, Collectors, or Reapers," Ragan had a point on that. Of all the races, only two are allowed to be spared. And Krogan, Turian, Asari, Elcor, Volus, and others don't have the technology required.

The team went into another corridor... another three corpses, all three Batarians… riddled with shots along the right wall, executed, perhaps because they were showing symptoms of the disease, perphas for no real reason.

"God, this stench is horrible," Jaboc said.

"Smelled worse, suck it up," John said. Ragan laughed and then got smacked by John.

"You've actually smelled something worse than this," Jacob asked trying not to gag.

"Two words: Thorian creepers," Ragan and John said in unity.

"That bad?"

"Yep, kill enough of them you find yourself rapidly re-evaluating what you consider a bad smell." John shuddered. "Even worse when drenched with their insides from fighting them, decontamination and four showers won't help. Me, Ragan, Jane, and Tali were quarantined for a week, because the crew complained."

"That's… something," Miranda said. They then heard sounds of battle suddenly got their attention. Ahead there was a large hall stretched out to the left and right. The right side sported a number of tipped over tables and benches from where a number of Blue Suns were digging in, the left side on the other hand only had a few tall boxes of various size as cover, boxes the many Vorcha around were practically fighting other to cover behind as shots filled the air between the two forces. A Varren leapt over one of the nearest tables, the large reptile sinking its dagger-sized teeth into the neck of the Turian mercenary. The man shrieked as he was bowled over, his weapon slipping out of his hands as they shot up to push against the large reptile, only to limply fall to the floor as the Varren jerked its head sideways, drawing a sickening crack from the Turian's neck.

"Let's go, cause as much confusion as you can," John said. Miranda and Jacob nodded as Ragan opened the floor grate and traveled to the other side without being heard. The team charged into the chaos.


	75. Chapter 47: Professor part 2

Chapter 47: Professor part 2

"Attach the Vorcha," a man shouted. The battle was chaos, the zone became a storm of shots. The Blue Suns commander leapt into the fray, heedless of the heavy crossfire between the two camps charged to the right, leapt and landed right next to a confused-looking Turian. The entire team responded, leaping over tables and benches, dropping down next to the mercenaries. The team would help one side to get rid of the other and when that was done, they would turn on them.

"Miranda, overload the cainsters," John ordered. She pointed her omni-tool at the canister, and the exploding tank tore them all apart. Further to her right Jacob was pulling several Vorcha out of cover with his biotics, making them become easy targets for the Blue Suns around him. Miranda added her shots to theirs and Ragan quickly jumps out and slams a Vorcha to the ground. Two Vorchas look at him and Ragan just went to them and threw one in the air and kicked the other right before the one in the air lands and gets hit by the second Vorcha. Jacob lifted a Vorcha and Ragan quickly shots the head. Ragan goes back in the grates and waits for the next victim. Miranda makes the Vorcha get flanked of the enemy into a funnel of corpses as disciplined shot after shot and volley after volley took done their targets with near mechanical precision. The fight didn't last long.

The man nearest to John, a Batarian, turned to face him, hand reaching out.

"Thank you for the…" His four eyes widen as he saw the gun to his face. "…wait… what are you…"

Ragan jumps out of the grate and cracks his neck. "Clean up," Ragan killed the Batarian, the scream alerted the rest of the Blue Suns of the team's presents and they attacked. Miranda spun, the heel of her boot flying high and smashing straight into the visor of the Turian that behind her had started to raise his weapon. He crumpled to the floor even as Miranda's biotics grabbed him and sent him flying into another Turian, both crashing into the wall with a cruch allowing Jacob to take them out by shotgun. A Human tried to sneak up on the man but was then rewarded with a round in the face as the rest were casually gunned down by John and Ragan.

"Stupid and suicidal, just how I like it," John said with a smirk. "Make it almost too easy."

"Glad nothing changed you at all," Ragan then saw a Blue Sun come on top of the balacony and threw his chained kunai at the man. The man tried to avoid it but was struck by it then pulled down head first. "COME HERE," Ragan said as he pulled the chain and the man died, his helmet was busted open.

"Can we hurry up and find the Salarian? The smell is getting worse," Miranda was gagging. The team made their way through the slums; they saw bodies hanging from poles. Aria had said Mordin was dangerous and now John and the team knew why, he was just as vicious as the mercs.

"This…uh, must be the… place," Jacob stuttered.

"I'll say this; he knows how to make a point," John said. A part of him said that he liked the way Mordin dealt with the mercs but the other part said that Mordin might kill them.

Miranda looked at him. "You almost sound like you admire his handy work. Remind you of Torfan?"

"Miranda, give John some room," Ragan said.

"He's making a statement that is saying 'don't fuck with me.' I respect that, that's all," John said.

Inside the clinic there was a detachment of Human and mech gaurds, no doubt any mercs stupid enough to pick a fight with the people inside would have a hell of a fight. The guards looked at the team with suspicion. Once of them came up to them. "No funny business in the clinic, unless you want to deal with these mech," the guard said.

"Noted," John looked at Ragan. "You better not pick a fight." Ragan shook his head. Once inside, the lobby was full of injured and the sick, from Turians, Asari, and even Batarians, everyone was welcomed in the clinic, it matter what you were. However there were some who were not sick, mostly Humans running from the chaos of the slums, walking around making the sick and injured more comfortable, no doubt being put to work by the good doctor. John was impressed by Mordin was able to make the clinic and a safe haven all in one.

"Glad they are out of the Chaos," Ragan said. "If they stated out there, we would be smelling more bodies." Miranda gagged and Jacob tried to hold the urge not to gag. John shook his head.

"Ragan is right about that," John was agreeing with him. "Any more bodies out there, the smell would be in here and it would make everything worse."

They went to see the doctor preforming an operation, Mordin was unassuming at first, like all Salarians but that made him that much more dangerous. His face was wrinkled, not at all smooth like most Salarians John had seen, which meant he was much older. One of his horns was broken off, an old battle injury no doubt.

"Professor Mordin Solus," John's voice made the Salarain look at him. He walked toward John and started scanning. "O…kay."

"Hmm, don't recognize you from area, too heavily armed to be refuges. No mercenary uniform. Quarantine still in effect," he was like a hamster on caffeine coffee that had drank about five pots.

"Uh…," Ragan said, but the Salarain continued.

"Here for something else, Vorcha? Here to clean them out? Unlikely, Vorcha's a symptom, not a cause." Mordin started pacing around.

"Doctor…," John said.

"The plague? Investigating use as possible bio-weapon? No, too many guns, not enough data equipment. Soldiers, not scientists. Yes, yes."

"Doctor…" John said becoming annoyed.

Hired guns, maybe? Looking…," Ragan then got tired of this because his hands were over his ears.

"For the love of God," Ragan interrupted Mordin. "Take a breath." Ragan quickly places a hand on Mordin's shoulder. "You need to talk in complete sentences."

"Oh dear, I've don't it again. Sorry about that, so what are you here for," Mordin asked.

"Finally, I'm Commander Ragan Ryu Shepard, I'm here to recruit you for a mission under my CO, Staff-Commander Johnathan Ryu Shepard," Mordin looked at him. "And before you ask, no we are not brothers. I'm adopted by his father's brother."

"Wasn't going to ask that in person but thank you for clearing that out," Mordin looked at John. "I hardly understood a word he said."

"I'm Johnathan 'John' Ryu Shepard. I'm here to recruit you for a mission." Mordin's eyes grew wide.

"Mission? What mission? Too busy. Clinic too understaffed. Plague spreading too fast. Who sent you," he asked.

"The Alliance and Cerberus," Miranda said. "We need you for an important reason."

"Cerberus… Crossed paths with them. Thought they only worked with Humans? Why request Salarian aid?"

"I'm on a mission to shut down the Collectors," John said. "Human colonies have gone dark. Cerberus, the Council and the Alliance have a truce right now."

"Collectors? Interesting. Plague in slums engineered. Collectors are one of the few with technology to design it. Our goals may be similar. But must stop plague first, already have cure, just need to get it Environmental Control Center. Vorcha guarding it. Need to kill them."

John sighed. "Couldn't be simple, could it? I'll get in and deal with the Vorcha."

All of a sudden, it became darker, there was sound of machines powering down. Ragan quickly pulls up the schematics of the clinic.

"What the hell is that," Jacob asked.

"Environmental Control Center is offline," Ragan gave the bad news. "There is only fifteen minutes before everyone dies in the clinic."

"Vorcha have shut down environmental controls, smarter than I give them credit for. Need to get systems back on be for district suffocates," Mordin the starts handing them the cure. "Here, take cure, also take weapon. A gesture of good faith, took it off dead Blue Suns member." Mordin gives them the M-6 Carnifex.

"Got you, I'll see you in a bit," John said walking away.

"Wait," Mordin stopped John by speaking. "Daniel, one of my assistants. Went into Vorcha territory. Looking for victims. Hasn't come back. Went with permission."

"I'll keep an eye out," Mordin nodded. "Let's go."

"Excuse me Dr. Solus," Ragan made Mordin stop. "Is there any vents I can use so I can get the upper hand against the Vorcha?"

"Not here unless want to deal with blades and traps. Suggest go outside and find the vent on top of the stairs," Mordin was excited to hear someone uses sneaking attacks to get an upper hand.

Aria was right, Mordin likes to talk, and fast, very fast – he reasons quickly and out loud. But he knew his stuff and that's what John needed. On the way to the control center, they fought through crowds of Blood Pack mercs, they were tougher than the Blue Suns, but they didn't have the discipline and fell pretty easy. Ragan did his take outs on the mercs while getting to the control center. They went up a few more stairs and heard some rough angry voice. They walked closer and came across some upset Batarians who had a very scared Daniel at gunpoint. The team went slowly; one wrong move and Daniel could end up dead and possible jeopardize getting Mordin to join them.

"I'm telling you the truth. I work with Dr. Solus," Daniel was shaking. "I'm here to help you."

"We know you're spreading the virus," the Batarian growled. "We saw the vials."

"No, they're the cure, please…"

"Maybe we should cut off your fingers, to get you to talk," the Batarian said.

"Or maybe you should let go of the kid before this gets ugly," John said as the team entered the door, Ragan was underneath the Batarian holding Daniel. But one of the Batarians saw them come in and warned his allies. The Batarian with gun pointed at Daniel and grabbed him, and had the gun to the young man's head. The situation immediately turns into a standoff.

"One more step and he dies," the Batarian said angrily.

"Use your head for once blink. Why would he be in Vorcha territory, they're immune," John said.

"Vorcha's are the race of bottom feeders, they don't' have the knowledge to make this plague," the Batarian said. "That only leave Humans."

"And yet you have no proof," John aimed for the Batarian on the right side. "Let the boy go, you live. Kill him you'll be breathing a new hole in the your heads, simple as that.

The Batarians looked at each other, unsure if John's words were true. They stood a couple of minutes, before letting Daniel go and putting their weapons away. "Fine, let's go, he's not worth it," he said. "We did what you wanted, are we free to go?"

"Go, and move fast before I change my mind."

"Human nobility. Didn't know such a thing existed," the Batarian nodded and walked way as quickly as they could. Daniel got off the floor looking no worse for wear, though he was shaken from the experience.

"Thank you," Daniel said.

"Go back to the clinic. The doctor needs you," John gently shoved him towards the door.

Daniel nodded and walked away. "Of course, again thank you." With that the team continued to their destination. The Environmental Control Room was large and dimly lit by orange light panels up in the high ceiling. Two catwalks flanked the rectangular chamber on each side of the group, both sporting low walls that no doubt hid various controls of staff that no longer lived and now instead had several armed Vorcha standing behind them armed with rocket launchers.

Whoever had designed the place had an eye for decoration, which was strange for Omega, though the Spectre guess it must have been a lot nicer in the past when the Protheans walked it halls. In the past, this was probably a courtyard at some point, from the decorations on the pillars surrounding the room, but now they were worn and covered with filth. Secondly, the many low walls around the central chamber were all meant to have flowers growing out of them, acting like long pots were as filled with earth. Though now the plants were nothing but blackened and withered things.

The place may have been the classier part of Omega at some point, like the Presidium was for the Citadel but after the Reapers claimed the Protheans, it slowly decayed, a dire reminder of what John and Ragan were fighting to prevent. However the reflection was cut shor when they encounter an unusually talkative Vorcha.

"Gah," the Vorcha exclaimed in it serpentine accent, spittle flying from his mouth. "You work for doctor!" This one makes clear that they are a league with the Collectors. "Doctor wants to stop plague!" the Vorcha exclaimed as if it was a great insult, its clawed hand shooting out to point at John. "We'll kill you!"

Then the world became a blur of flashing shots, explosions and screams. Ragan jumps from the ceiling and smashes the talkative Vorcha on the ground then throws him at the ceiling. A piece of metal came lose and impales the Vorcha in the heart, killing it instantly. Jacob was aglow with biotic power, the man turning to the left as he pushed a hand out, only to close it into a fist and pull, and suddenly three Vorcha on the left catwalk hiseed as they were pulled off the ledge and began to spin through the air.

"I got this," John said as he threw his warp field at the Vorcha causing explosions. Miranda focused on the right though, pinpointing two Vorcha lining up shots at the standing Cerberus officer until Ragan threw his sword and the Vorcha caught it, it was a big mistake because he caught it by the handle and three blades cut his hand and arm off; making him bleed to death.

"Jacob," Miranda yelled. Jacob too the cue and pulled the Vorcha from their cover. Miranda lifts the targers and slams them to the ground. John was impressed at the two, they fought very much in synch. One tumbled over the railing, falling to the floor below with a wet thump of breaking bones, the other simply dropped onto the catwalk, head cracked open.

Thumb after thump and Vorcha after Vorcha, head and necks opened as they desperately increased their own volume of fire, which made it even more inaccurate.

"I'm getting tired of them," John said as he got his heavy weapon out. It was yellow and black cannon with a nuclear hazard mark on it, the M-920 Cain.

Miranda's eyes went wide. "Where did you get that?!"

"Found it before we left for Omega." He pulled the trigger.

"Don't," she yelled. But it was too late. The gun fishined charging and the now fully sized sphere flew out of the barrel with a loud thump. The recoil was incredible and as John took a staggering step backwards to catch himself from falling. He watched as the orb sailed through the air and impacted the enemies. John smirked at the resulting explosion, which was spectacular to say the least. He could feel the shockwave to his feet.

John laughed as he got off the ground. "I'm keeping this."

"You idiot," Miranda yelled. "The M-920 Cain, was experimental, you could have blown us up."

"But I didn't," John simply said. Miranda fumed, at his devil-may-care attitude, and the woman had to catch herself from trying to punch for his recklessness.

"Do you ever think, before doing these things," she asked angrily.

"Not really." Miranda was speechless, her new commander was insane. "Now that is out of the way, let's put this cure in." After it was down, they met with Mordin back at the clinic.

"Well down, uh… May I call you John because of there are two Shepards," Mordin asked. John nodded. "Well donw, John. Viral effectis are decreasing and Vorcha retreating."

"And thank you for saving me, Commander," Daneil said. "For a minute there I thought you were going to kill them."

"Thought about it first," John said.

"Well I'm glad, the plague was bad enough," he said.

"Risky, would have killed them myself," Mordin got a look from Daniel.

"How could you say that? You're a doctor, you believe in helping people," he said outraged.

"Galaxy not that simple, kid," Ragan said.

"He's right, lots of ways to help. Sometimes cure the sick, sometimes execute dangerous people." Daniel was about to speak, Mordin held his hand. "Go check on the patients, lots of work to do."

Daniel sighed. "Fine." He was in defeat.

"Good kid, though a bit naïve," Mordin said. "The clinic will be in good hands, now that Vorcha are gone."

John chuckled. "I almost envy him." He then grew serious. "Are you ready?"

"Yes, unexpected to be working with Alliance and Cerberus. Galaxy full of surprises," Mordin said.

"Good to have you on board," John offered Mordin his hand and he gladly shook it.


	76. Chapter 48: Voyage

Chapter 48: Voyage

"You're still here," a woman asked. Rael looked back to his old friend, Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay looking at him with crossed arms. Rael simply ignored her and went back to work.

"Greetings, Raan," Rael was in no mood.

"Don't 'greetings Raan' me. Why weren't you there to see Tali off," Raan asked firmly. Shala'Raan wasn't just an old friend of the Zorah family, she was practically like a second mother to Tali, taking care of her since Rael's wife, Zina, died.

"I can't show preference, you know that Raan, not even to Tali," Rael loved his daughter; no doubt, it was the reason he took the promotion to Admiral in the first place. However as devoted as he was to his only remaining family, he could get lost in his duties to his people, which caused some distance between him and his daughter until Ragan saved Tali and Ziva from the air filter malfunction. After that, he stayed close with his daughter.

"Keelah, it's not favoritism to say goodbye, it's called being a father…" Rael didn't respond and Raan sighed. "Why aren't you more worried the fact, Tali is going behind enemy lines?"

"Tali is capable, she proved that when she was on her pilgrimage and helped Commander Shepard's cousin – Commander Johnathan Shepard," Rael was proud of them three. Fighting an ex-Spectre and come alive to tell the story. "Besides, it's for a good cause…"

"I hardly call studying a dying sun a good cause," Raan didn't agree with Rael on many things. "But this must be different because it's aging too quickly when it's not even growing old. Dark matter. The Conclave is up to something…"

Rael looked at her and frowned. "Enough Raan, we can't start questions our people' trust, things are fragile enough as it is." The Admiralty Board and the Conclave had something of a rivalry even before the Quarian's exile from the home world three hundred years ago. While the two governing bodies didn't trust each other, they kept this factor hidden so not to divide their people, thought there were times they tried to undermine each other. Ragan was a witness of it when the Alliance force him to go and help find Veetor and the Conclave said no while the Admiralty Board said yes.

"Of course, it's just me being worried. Well I've got to go back to the Tonbay," Raan said. "But try to at least keep in touch with Tali, you may be an admiral but you're still her father."

"Of course and Raan," Raan looked back at Rael. "Tali's been different since coming back from that Human colony with Veetor'Nara."

"Oh?"

"She's been happier despite losing her whole squad, why is that?"

"I don't know, maybe you should talk to her," Raan said but Rael spoke up.

"It's because Commander John Shepard is alive and the Alliance with Cerberus must have done something. She loved John. When she returned after the Normandy wad destroyed, I held her while she cried and said that John was her first love."

**Siritua's (Quarian Frigate) Shuttle**

Meanwhile on the shuttle, Tali was meeting her new team, when she came back to the fleet she was first worried that she was going to be reprimanded for losing Prazza and the others on Freedom's Progress. Instead, she was praised for coming back with Veetor and was chosen to lead another mission, though in Tali's mind she didn't deserve it. She sat down with her own team as she saw the leader of her security team speak to his men.

"All right, bosh'tets. I'm only going to say this once so pay attention," Kal'Reegar said. He was the older brother of Prazza, the man who betrayed her and Ragan then got her team killed. When Tali heard she was going to be working with yet another Reegar, she was at first worried it would be another episode similar to his brother but she was surprised just how opposite of Prazza he was. Reegar opened a hologram of the planet. "This is Haestrom, the smallest of our old colonies in Geth space. But I don't think I need to tell you, to keep your guard up at all times. Our job is to project Tali'Zorah and her research team, so do your jobs well. And if you fail, then I will get the man that was with her on Freedom's Progress to hunt you down."

"Sir, yes, sir," the men's voices echoed in the shuttle.

"We've got eight hours until we get there, I suggest you get some rest. Dismissed," Reegar acted like Ragan and John. Touch, loyal and willing to get the job done. The rest of the security team and Tali's research team scattered to get some rest, leaving Reegar and Tali. Reegar gave a sharp salute to her. "Ma'am."

"You don't have to call me that, Reegar. Just Tali." They moved to the cockpit, to check the readings, while still in working conditions this was still a three hundred year old ship which some systems may not be working as well as they would hop, like the auto pilot.

"I'll work on that ma'am," Ragan said. "I have to say it is an honor working with you on this mission." Tali lowered her head. "Ma'am?"

"Do you still think that after what happened on Freedom's Progress," Tali asked sadly.

"If you're talking about Prazza, don't worry I don't blame you for my brother's death. I read your report on what happened, while I'm sorry Prazza is gone and didn't get trialed for insubordination, it was his own fault; he let his own ego get in the way of mission." Reegar shook his head. "And got two good people killed… so don't worry about it. I blame Ragan for not killing him for what Prazza did."

"Thank you," Tali said as she looked the holo. She sighed contentedly while staring at the picture of the Normandy crew. It always made her feel better when she got depressed about John's death, but this time while looking at it she was filled with hope.

"So that's your old crew," Reegar was eager. Tali smiled and nodded. "Can I look?" Tali gave the man the holo. "So strange, I can't really see myself working with so many races, must have been stranged."

Tali chuckled. "It was at first, Humans did so many things differently than Quarians. It was hard to get adjusted at first. Plus everyone on the ground team, including Ragan, had so many personalities that we came to blows at times."

"Still I'm surprised an alien would let a Quarian serve on an advance prototype ship," Reeger pointed at one of the men in the holo. "Who is this one? He looks so familiar."

"That would be Ragan." Reegar looked at her with wide eyes. He was used of seeing Ragan with a breathing mask that had tubes going in his neck that traveled to the lungs. "This was taken before Saren burnt his lungs and he was forced to have that mask on him. It was tough to see one of the crew like that."

"I bet. Most races wouldn't spit our way much less recruit us, this John Shepard seem to be quite the person, shame he's no longer alive." Reegar bowed his head. "I'm sorry… I didn't meant to…"

"Actually, Reegar, Shep… I mean John is alive, I met him on Freedom's Progress. Ragan did too. It was a shock," Tali told Reegar the story, how Prazza betrayed her and Ragan and was killed by a reprogrammed mech and how she helped John defeat the mech while Ragan was trying to get it away from him. She then included that he was brought back by Cerberus but under Alliance and Council authorization because of the truce. Reegar understood the truce because he read about it on the extranet, and got some information from Ragan. Reegar was proud that Tali had been taken care of by two Humans that don't hate aliens.

"Huh, taking on a heavy mech, by himself, I can't tell if he's brave or just crazy. But he got the job done," he said.

Tali giggled. "Trust me; I had the same thoughts myself."

**SSV Normandy SR-2 – Research Lab Deck 2**

John sneezed; he was in the Reacher lab with his shirt off while the cool air blew on him. "Mordin, is this necessary?"

"Yes, yes. Need blood test to find best way to counteract seeker swarms. Will be quick." The team just made it back to the Normandy after recruiting the Salarian for the team. Of course that was not before Miranda read John the riot act, on not picking up dangerous experimental weapon before they could be tested. And of course, John argued back, making Jacob once again the peacekeeper and Ragan holding them back if they tried to get to blows. Once Mordin had been briefed on the mission, it didn't take long for the Salarian to get to work, unfortunately his work involved needles. A fear John had. "There, test will take a while. Impressive lab stet up, missed working on an operation with a budge. AI very helpful."

John looked at him. "I hope it doesn't betray us." He puts his shirt back on. "So how's Daniel? He settling in all right?"

"Quite well, safe and secured. Left mechs just in case. Can't be too careful." Mordin lowered his head. "Glad to be away from mech. Too noisy, never had to deal with them back at STG."

"I heard you were STG."

"Yes, not just research but recon and occasional wetwork. Very enjoyable, worked with a young Captain named Kirrahe."

John smiled, when he heard Kirrahe's name, a good man who helped his team destroy Saren's base, went to another island before the bomb went off on Virmire. "I met him on Virmire. I'm glad he survived that. It would have been a shame if he died."

"I heard, such a great honor, good leader. Jury rig explosives, always knew how to get job done with limited resources."

"Were you two close?"

"Not really, all brawn little brain, bit of a cloaca," Mordin simply said. John was taken aback how blunt he could be. "Died last year at age 35. Salarians don't age like Humans do. Salarain life average around 40 years. Got job regardless. Enjoyed his little speeches, 'hold the line,' though personally loved to get job done and go home. Probably military jargon, chest pounding er… no offense."

John looked at him and chuckled. "None take. So I guess you won't be on the next mission?"

"Should really check on test, but ready when called," Mordin said. Ragan comes in with places a vial of blood on the table. "Don't trust me?"

"It's not that, it just I don't trust any anyone until they prove their worth," Ragan stated. Ragan always wanted to see what the person was like before he judged them. He always believed in a saying, never judge a book by the cover.

"Eh, don't worry about it or him. I can get someone else to fill in and I can also make him try to trust you," John opened his omni-tool and told Miranda and Zaeed to be ready after they rest a few hours.

**Omega – Kenzo District**

As a Turian was tried, it's been close to a week now since the merc groups started to take a stand and join together. They hired freelancers, rookies with no experience with promises of money to take him down; some of them may have needed it, after all this was Omega. But it didn't matter, they were just another target to the Turian. Another one tries to take a shot at him, but shut the Turian shuts him down with a bullet to the head, he hears another explosion in the distance and smirks another idiot taken down by the proxy mine. He's holding them off for now, but eventually they'll get smarter and pool all their resources and when that happens he's done for. He's called Archangel, the 'guardian angel of Omega' but now the angle needed a guardian angel himself and soon before his time runs out.


	77. Chapter 49: Archangel part 1

Chapter 49: Archangel part 1

"That idiot," Miranda was livid, although they were successful in recruiting Mordin, she was still angry at the recklessness of John.

"Calm down, Miri," Jacob being his usual laid back person trying to get Miranda to calm down. "The mission is over and we're alive."

"That's not the point! He used an experimental weapon that could have easily backfired on us," she said. "If one thing went wrong, we would ended up like those Vorcha." Jacob came up and grabbed her arm. Miranda looked at him and blushed. Jacob shook his head.

"Hey, calm down," he gently said. "I don't get it; I've never seen you so riled up before."

Miranda sighed. "We spent billions on him, to bring him back to life, most people would try to be more careful, but it's like he has a death wish."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I've never met anyone like John. Ragan is brutal but not reckless like John, but you seem to take it personal. Why?"

"Because it defies all logic. He treats this more like a game than anything else."

"Ah." Miranda glared at him.

"What?"

"The classic battle of logic verus instinct. He gets under your skin because the fact he throws logic to the wind, in many ways he's the exact opposite of you." Jacob smirked. "The fact that his intuition, is trumping your data is driving you crazy." Miranda blushed and huffed as she pulled away from him.

Ragan come in the Armory and starts working on Zaeed's rifle. He starts overhearing the conversation on accident so he just kept doing his job.

"He's an idiot, whose recklessness is going to get us killed." Ragan had an idea who she was talking about. But he just kept working.

"Not everyone is you, Miri. Just trust him, he hasn't gotten us killed yet. And if I was you, I would keep an eye on Ragan. He can kill you without saying a word." Jacob walked to Ragan and starts looking over the kinetic generator Ragan is placing in the M-7 Lancer. He whistles and Ragan quickly tries to hit him but Jacob ducked quickly.

"Sorry," Ragan looked at Jacob and gave a sigh of relief. "Reacting on instinct."

"Jacob," Miranda said. Jacob looked over to her. "Thanks for listenting." Jacob smiled causing Miranda to blush again. Ragan shakes his head.

Miranda and Jacob had been friends since childhood, when they were little. Jacob had a crush on Miranda, while she had eyes for Niket, Jacbo's brother, things all changed when they met up years, and he saw Jacob, not as the annoying little boy from their childhood but a man. Miranda had always prided her herself as the ice queen, someone who was above it all but Jacob always had a way to pierce that shell. She shook her head. '_That was then, this is now,_' she thought. She then heard her omni-tool beep, it was John.

"Yes, John."

"You, Ragan and Zaeed are coming with me, so get ready. And is Ragan done working on the weapons?"

Miranda looked over and saw Ragan working. "No sir, he is working on them right now. I didn't even notice him come in."

"Okay, well tell Zaeed that his weapons will be ready when Ragan gets done."

"Yes, John."

"I see that you took the liberaty of calling me by John, everyone else does."

"Keeping things professional only if Hackett and the Illusive Man wants me."

"You know, we don't have to be enemies, we could be friends."

"A mission like this, we have not time for friendship." Ragan lifted his head and looked at her.

"Bullshit on that Ms. Lawson," Ragan said. "If you don't make friends, then you die alone."

"That is true from my cousin," John smirked. "And that is not what I see with Jacob." Miranda glared at him. "Alright, alright, I'll leave you alone." Miranda went back to her quarters and started working.

"You and Miranda," Ragan shook his head. "Should have known only Cerberus like Cerberus, nothing else." Jacob looks at him and gives a sigh.

"You know, she has eyes on you," Jacbo said. Ragan looks at him and shook his head.

"It was your fucking group that brunt the village I was living at." Jacob was taken aback from that. "Cerberus killed my wife and two children. Why should I be in love with my arch nemesis? I'll tell you why I shouldn't be in love with her, she is part of Cerberus and Cerberus made my life a living hell."

Jacob lowered his head and sighed. "I'm sure there was a reason for them to attack a Human village."

"It was Human. Me and my wife with the two children were the only Humans. The rest were Hanar, Drell, Asari, Elcor, Volus, and Turians." Ragan then looked at the gun. "It's groups like Cerberus is why they are labeled Terrorists."

**Omega**

The team went back to Omega to meet with Aria on the information of Archangle. Aria was out for a moment, making the team wait. They then heard footsteps and saw Aria come up with a woman in each arm. When she saw John, she sent her dates to a private room and went to sit back on her couch.

"Shepard," Aria said while crossing her right leg over her the top of her left leg.

"Which one," Ragan and John said in unity.

"Okay, the Commander," Aria looked at them and was shocked.

"Again, which one?"

"Is there anything I can call you," she said. She then saw Ragan shake his head.

"Call him John, and you can call me Ragan," Ragan said. He was the type that didn't trust much people. And when he said it, it sounded like there was something between them two.

"Okay. John, from the fact you're here I take it Mordin is with you," Aria looked at John.

"Yeah, you were a big help. Now I need info on Archangel," John demanded it. He didn't have time for this.

"You want to kill him too," Ragan and John looked at Aria with a confused look.

"What do you mean," Ragan got up but a guard placed his hand on his chest. He looks at the guard and grabs the hand and breaks it. "Don't try that again," he whispered in the guard's ear.

Aria scoffed. "He think he's fighting for the good side, there is not good side on Omega, everything he does piss someone off." John smirked, that almost sounded familiar, if he was that straight-laced then, he could be a buffer between the whole truce with the Alliance, Council, and Cerberus. Get him to keep his mind clear, not let him forget what kind of person he was working for.

"Sounds perfect," Ragan said. He then placed his back on the wall with arms crossed. "But we need him for the mission."

"Well aren't you interesting, you're going to make a lot of enemies. Assuming you can get to him, he's in a bit of trouble," Aria smirked.

John looks at Ragan and motioned him to get some info. Ragan nodded. "Explain or I'll kill one of your guards right in front of you," Ragan was excited to kill. He killed some Blood Pack and Blue Suns when they were going to get to Mordin and now he wants to have Aria fear him. "What kind of trouble?"

Aria laughed. "You have gotten darker over the past two years after John's death. A foul play if I might add. The merc groups have joined forces to take down Archangel. They got him cornered but seems they're having trouble finishing him off."

"What merc groups are in this," John asked.

"Blue Suns, Blood Pack and Eclispe. Unless you see them at war, you'll never see them working together," Aria then saw Ragan bit his lip.

"Rokudenashi," Ragan said. John knew what he said and shook his head. Ragan loved to cuss in his native language. "That explains what I saw yesterday. Those three groups talking to each other like they were at war, hell I thought they were going to blow the place off the map before something happens."

"So the three major merc groups are after Archangel. Why are they having trouble," John asked.

"Archangel is skilled with a sniper rifle and knows tech upgrades. So they've started to hire anyone with a gun."

"Good, that should like our ticket in," Zaeed said. Aria looked at him like she knew him before.

Aria pointed at the door. "You see that door, that's where they are hiring people."

"Fight to the end once we get there," John said. Ragan chuckled and gave Zaeed a pistol. "So what has Archangel done to cause all this 'chaos'?"

"Ruin shipments, compromised meetings, attacked random hits-and-runs," Aria shook his head. "He got all three major groups after him within a year. He might have a squad with him, but I'm not so sure now."

"What about you?"

"I don't have tiem for hate, but I distrust them all equally. For now I'm happy to see them kill each other." Aria smiled and waved for the guards to move out of the way.

"Thanks," John didn't want to admit it but Aria knows what goes on Omega and she was the only person to talk to about it.

"See if you feel this way when the mercs know you're helping Archangel," she said with a smirk. Ragan looked at her and shook his head.

The team went downstairs to meet with the mercs. "I hear you're recruiting," John said with anger. The door handler was a Batarian. He points to the entrance. The team walks in, the room was small and nothing special, usually John would say that was the point, to not attract attention, but then this was Omega, no law enforcement. However it did had one thing going for it, it was in Afterlife which attracted people stupid enough to look for a job like this. Although, it was strange for Aria to let mercs do recruiting so close to her, was she that sure of her security?

"You four look like you could do damage," the Batarian said. "Looking for a good fight?"

John smirked. "You could say that."

"Good, standard fee is 500 credits. You collect your share when the job is done. If you die, none of your friends will collect you part of share." He starts typing. "You also need your own armor and weapons – seems like you got that covered. And no this doesn't make you a member of the Blue Suns, Eclipse, or Blood Pack. You are a freelancer, nothing else. Period." He looks up and gives a sigh. "You're all signed up."

John cracked his knuckle. "Where do we go?"

"Just go outside of the club, there will be a shuttle waiting for you." The Batarian then sees John and the team leave. "Send in the next one." The door opens and a kid came through, he looked no younger than seventeen.

"Hey, is this where I sign up," the kid asked. John and the team stop and look at him.

"You look a bit young to be freelancing as a merc. How old are you," Ragan said.

The kid scoffed and the Batarian looked up with narrowed eyes at the kid. "I'm old enough," the kid said. "I grew up on Omega. I know how to use a gun." John sighed and shook his head in exasperation, he'd seen too many of the what the kid was, young idiots doing something dangerous and stupid to look cool.

"So does Archangel," Ragan said. "You'll just be target practice to him. Archangel is a full expert sniper."

The kid frowned. "I can handle myself," he said while showing his M-3 Predator. "I just spent fifty credits on this." John took his gun and smashed it against the wall making parts of the gun fall out. Also for good measures, he made sure the gun was jammed making it further useless. The kid was speechless as John gave him back the now broken gun.

"Get your money back, kid," he said. "It's not your time." The team walked out.

"That was clearly the best way to deal with that," Zaeed said. Ragan chuckled. Zaeed raises one eye brow and looks at Ragan. Zaeed didn't like Ragan that much because Ragan was always strict.

"Better than the way I would have dealt with it," Ragan then points at his M-11 Wraith. "I would have killed him." Zaeed's eyes went wide and shook his head. Ragan was very dark but to kill a kid that was below the age of eighteen was pure dark. Course after John died, Ragan became dark after the whole group left Tali. Ragan didn't want to see Tali like that so he stayed with her but even then, he was still distant from other members of the first Normandy because he didn't keep tabs on them.

**Omega – Kenzo District**

The Kenzo District was full of winding tunnels, hidden entrances and dead ends, perfect for a merc group that don't want their operation to be known by rivals or vigilantes who wanted to make a quick and clean kill. As the team walked to the meeting point, it was obvious from the piles of bodies they been seeing that even with freelancers, Archangel was trouble, so much trouble that they were using mechs and a gunship for one guy. A big mistake as John, Ragan and Miranda was able to hack some of mechs, when the operation started they would have a huge surprise on their hands. Eventually they met up to the man leading the siege, a Batarian, much to John's dismay. The Batarian was pressing his back against the wall to the left of the large doorway that had been blocked up by a chest-high wall of old machinery and metal boxes. Compared to the shoddy hired gun, he looked like a professional. All of them were pressed up against the low wall, crouching low to evade the sniper fire on the other side of the bridge.

"Listen up! If you're smart you'll stay in cover," the Batarian said. "You're here as a distraction! Something a corpse can't do!"

"How long do you think he's been fighting," Miranda said.

Zaeed looked at her. "By the looks of the damage, I say about a week. Archangel has been pounding them hard, but…"

"Eventually, Archangel will get tire and the mecrcs will pick him apart," John finished.

"Then we better hurry. Don't want our expert sniper dying without us," Ragan said. He was an excellent liar about this. Keep him talking and he would tell you that some world is about to get attacked by a vigilante. He then looked at the Batarian.

"But you're lucky ladies; he's slowing down now, making mistakes, so if you keep moving, he won't get you… well… all of you," the Batarian said with a grin. "He's run out of those proximity mines your clumsy predecessors kept stumbling over and his automatic turrets are all fried… it just him now." All along the line of the other freelancers crouched in readiness, staring at the wall before them, tense, pale and frightened. The Batarian's word not helping much. John shook his head in pity, some of those poor bastards would not be coming back. "Don't think it'll make things easy though, I've seen this guy shoot five freelancers in the head in a single row. So my advice: run like hell cause he will get headshots."

"At least it'll be painless," Zaeed said bluntly. Ragan nodded in agreement. The men near him paled when they heard what Zaeed said. One woman having second thoughts took a step back, only to fall back with a thump as her brain splattering all over the wall. There was much nervous chatter as some of the freelancers saw the woman's dead body twitched; they were many whimpers and praying. Zaeed scoffed at the display. "Bloody amateurs."

"We have the infiltration unit in there, we are waiting for their signal until then…" The Batarian looked at his omni-tool and went to the terminal. "Check that… Bravo team… Go! Go! Go!" As six humans walked over to the wall and jumped over it, the Batarian looked at the rest of them. "One three are dead, I want six of you to out there." Three shots her heard and the Batarian looked over his shoulder and saw three bodies. "Next ones, up there now." He pointed at John and the team and two more freelancers. "It's time. Go! Go! GO!"

All along the line of freelancers reluctantly moved, some hesitating, other practically were crawling up the wall, still other leaping over in trying to be the first to reach cover. A lot of good it did as the first couple was shot before they could reach it.

"What's the plan," Zaeed asked.

"Hang back for now; we need to play the part, until we get inside." John activated his tech armor. "Ragan, got to the gunship and mess with it." Ragan saluted and started running away from the team. Before John the bridge was a scene of destruction, pieces of broken mechs lay strewn about, what might have been a gunship lay on the right side, twisted and mangled and all over there were broken limbs covered in cracked armor, many too burnt to be recognized as anything but black rocks. As the team moved forward, the freelancers around them were being mowed down by Archangel's sniper fire. Some of them tried to get at the man but Archangel was just too fortified in his cover, he then too aim and fired spilling more blood. Then as John was getting close, he felt something big hit him hard in his chest making him stagger. He looked at the ground and saw a concussive round on the floor, it was a good thing he had his tech armor up or otherwise that would have hurt. John glared at the man up top, just as he went back to cover, he was lucky John was coming to save his ass. "Went I get to him, I'm kicking his ass," John muttered. The team eventually made it to the inside of Archangel's base, alone with the freelancers, it was time to let loose. "Come on, let's show them what we are really made of. Now!"

Zaeed was the first to react, aiming for a dark-skinned woman taking cover behind one of the pillars on the edge of the bridge. He knocked her out of cover with a concussive shot and gunned her down. "Sorry 'bout that lass," he said.

Miranda blasted two merchs with her biotic field and then coolly placing her gun against their head and pulled the trigger. When she saw two freelancers going up the stairs, she lifted them up and then slammed them down on the floor, snapping their necks. John mowed the mercs down with his shotgun, until his tech armor broke and knocked the mercs behind them down. The man tried to grab his gun but John stepped on the man's arm and pulled the trigger.

"Good news," Ragan's voice was heard over the earpiece. "The gunship is not going to be at a hundred percent but it is at fifty percent. So it will take less shots to destroy it."

Surprisingly enough most didn't seem aware of the betrayal, as the majority of the freelancers were either more focused getting across the bridge or tried to get at Archangel. Band move on both accounts with the team waiting for them on the bottom and Archangel mowing them down with sniper fire. Zaeed jabbed his assault rifle into the gut of a grunting woman, then pulled the trigger, pouring rounds into her and three approaching enemies. John lifted four of them trying to flank Zaeed with his singularity and Miranda put them down with a warp. And then quiet, no more shouting or gunfire, it was over for now.

The team went upstairs to meet with Archangel, weapons drawn. The new room was lined with sleeping bunks and lockers, upon getting closer it was clear that it hasn't been slept on for a good while. In the middle was Archangel waiting for them. John arched an eyebrow in surprised, he'd expected a Turian, but he hadn't expected a Turian wearing blue and black armor of C-Sec. John instantly put away his weapons and gestured his team to do the same.

"Archangel," John asked.

"I knew you were tough but damn I didn't know you could come back from the dead," the Turian said.

John recognized the voice. "Garrus," he asked in disbelief. Miranda looked at him. The helmet slid upwards, a flow of blue blood form the new opening as the helmet was released form the rest of the armor and taken off. John smirked. "Ragan is going to love this."

"Welcome back, boss," Garrus said with a smirk.


	78. Chapter 49: Archangel part 2

Chapter 49: Archangel part 2

John couldn't keep a huge grin off his face, while he knew he was picking up a Turian, he never imagined it was his old friend from the first Normandy. "Garrus, you crazy son of a bitch, how are you," John greeted with a smile. Although he was glad the Turian was safe, he had bunch of questions to ask. As it, after the Battle of the Citadel and John's death, Garrus reveals that he followed John's example and created his own squad to enforce their own version of justice on Omega, leading to his current predicament.

"Just keeping my skills sharp, though I may have taken on more than I can handle," Garrus said while applying medi-gel on his face.

"No shit, how did you piss off all the top mercs on Omega," John asked. John knew that Garrus had did something that got the mercs to come after him but it had to be very big.

Garrus smirked. "Wasn't easy, I really had to work at it. Though the fact they're teaming up, they must really hate me."

Miranda scoffed. "Glad to see you're enjoying yourself." John looked at the sarcastic Miranda and started popping his knuckles. Miranda went wide-eyed when she saw John was about to attack her.

Garrus shook his head and avoid that little incident. "How did you survive? We saw you get spaced."

John sighed. "It's a long story that requires lots of alcohol."

"Well damn," Garrus was surprised. "I'll have to hear it, though first we should get out of here."

"I'm sorry but right now is not the best time," Garrus looks at John, who pointed at his earpiece. "The mercs are killing the freelancers right now. I…," a shot was heard over the comm. "Damn it." More shots were heard. "Okay, the mercs are now getting ready to attack you position cuz, get ready." Garrus knew who it was.

"Ragan is with you," Garrus laughed and shook his head. "Son of a bitch. He can't avoid being five seconds away from you."

"No but the mercs are coming and I bet…," John then heard Zaeed interrupt him.

"Can't be easy with all three groups there licking their chops. They will be using new weapons and possibly the mechs." Zaeed got his sniper rifle ready and looks at rear window.

"You're right, the best thing we can do is isolate them and each group separately," Garrus said.

"A crack in their defenses, worth trying," John then heard Zaeed fire his sniper rifle.

Miranda spoke up. "Or…," she said while showing a map of the area. "We can escape through the tunnels; it would lead somewhere close to the Normandy."

"Sounds… Normandy," Garrus was confused. "You can tell me later." He looked down. "That plan is going to have to wait, they're coming."

"What is it," John asked.

"Mechs, looks like we're dealing with Eclipse mercs," He took his sniper rifle and shot a head off one of the mechs. "A couple of LOKI and two YMIR mechs."

John smirked. "Perfect." Garrus looked at him. "We did a little sabotage on the mechs before we came here; it's going to be one hell of a surprise." Garrus looked down as the first eclipse merc came to the bridge and shot down by their mechs. Then the next and then another until chaos and pandemonium ensued as the mercs were now in a shootout with their own mechs. This gave the team the perfect opportunity for the team to get away. Garrus broke away and ran to the explosives the freelancers left.

"What are you doing," Miranda asked.

"Covering our tracks, help me with the bombs." The team covers Garrus as he jury rigged the explosives. Each merc that was lucky enough to get past the hacked mechs were gunned down by John and the team. Soon more Eclipse merc started to move to the bridge, mowing down the mechs until the two YMIR mechs were left.

"Garrus? Move it; I think we're running out of mechs." Garrus set the timer for forty seconds, just enough for the team to get out of there. They made it to the tunnels, after hearing a loud boom. They ran throught the tunnels following Miranda's map, until they heard growling.

"Shit Varren," John said. The tunnels were flooded with Varren and Vorcha, they had escaped Eclipse and now they had to face the Blood Pack. "Zaeed, Garrus sniper support. Miranda you're on biotics with me," he ordered. John used his singularity field to lift the varren in the air; Miranda shut them down with her warp. Zaeed and Garrus shot the Vorcha getting close to John and Miranda, though it wasn't easy as the aliens regenerated fast. One of the Vorcha got close to Miranda, in his hand was a flamethrower. Miranda ducked behind cover as a stream of flames moved above her. John threw the pyro back, just as more Vorcha started to reinforce their allies. Miranda returned the favor and overloaded the pyro's pack, causing him to explode and take his allies with him. They made a run for it.

"Which way," John then heard a noise above them in the vents.

"Next left," Miranda pointed. "Close that shutter," Zaeed pressed the button and the shutter closed on a Vorcha's head.

The corridor was as it always looked, filthy, downtrodden and supported by worn down pillars along the walls, maing for good cover even as one wondered if too much danage to said pillars would make the entire complex of tunnels come apart. "Be careful, these tunnels are old," Garrus said. And then there was a roar, a bloodthirsty, deep, reverberating roar. "Aw, shit!"

A krogan in deep red armor charged at the team. "Who the fuck is that," Zaeed asked.

"Garm, leader of the Blood Pack. Watch out!"

Garm came in full throttle… his dark red armor a massive blur as he rushed at John standing his ground. John threw a couple of warps to slow him down, the Krogan was fast and when he got close Garm smashed the Spectre aside by Garm's shoulder drawing a pained gasp as the Human was sent hurtling through the air and into the pillar behind. The turnnel shook form the impact.

"Not good, this place is falling apart," Garrus said.

Garm was nowhere near down though as he swung the flamethrower in his claws towards Garrus, who with a curse ducked under the spray of fire, rollowed away from a kick and stumbled widly firing as the Krogan came close. The bullets were hitting their mark but the Krogan's armor was tough, as he approached like nothing was happening. Garm pointed the flamethrower at the downed Turian getting ready to fire. Zaeed and Miranda shot at Garm, hoping to get his attention, but the Krogan glowed blue and fired a shockwave, making them scatter. He turned to Garrus.

"You're mine Archangel! Now burn," he roared. John stood up and rushed at Garm firing bullet after pullet.

"Hey numb nuts…" Garum turned around and John gave a swift biotic kick to the Krogan's crotch. The Krogan grunted with pain and growled before his free hand swept the round and gripped the human's head, drawing a gasp from the man as the claws began to close. "Fuck you," John shouted while Ragan quickly came out of the vents above them while hitting Garm's head with his fist. John then looked at Ragan, who then got to Garm and gouged the Krogan's eyes with his tumbs. The Krogan roared in pain and let go of John, unfortunately Garm's blood rage kicked in and started flail wildly hoping to hit one of them and instead smashed a pillar holding up part of the tunnel making it shake.

"Let's get out of here," Miranda said. They ran leaving a blind Garm buried under the rubble. Ahead of them were more mercenaries in the tunnel ready for a fight until they felt the rumblings also. Some of the mercs were smart enough to just run tail and run, however the others decided it would be a good idea to fire when everything was coming down around their head. John froze them in stasis field, as the team ran pass them, tunnel claimed them.

"Miranda," John said.

"Open area at the end of the tunnel," she said. As they got out of the tunnel, a light blinded the team, a gunship stood in their way.

"Shit, I thought I took care of that thing," Garrus growled. The gunship fires, scattering the team to cover, however the ship wasn't interest in them, it was after Garrus. The Turian took potshots at the ship while trying to find cover, the gunship fires its rockets and Garrus sent flying, and hits the floor hard. John paled as he sees his old friend not moving at the gunship moves in for the kill. Ragan then jumps on the wall and starts running on it towards the gunship.

"Garrus!" John said as he took his rocket launcher. Ragan quickly jumps and jabs his sword in the metal framework and starts traveling up with it, all he did was make the pilot angered. John runs out of cover firing at it, causing the machine to focus on him. "Hey over here, jackass!" He gave the pilot the finger and ran away leading the gunship away from Garrus. While John was getting its attention, Miranda ran over to the wounded Turian and pulled Garrus over to the closest cover she could find. When John saw the Turian was safe, he rolled into cover and let loose a barrage of missiles at the ship. Ragan quickly jumps off before be the missiles made contact. Zaeed grabbed a heavy weapon off the ground and follow suit. Miranda gave the men covering fire with biotics. Even fully armored, the gunship couldn't handle the barrage of fire it was taken and careened wildly at the wall. Ragan quickly snaps his fingers and a blue aura surrounds him, making the fall not hurt.

John ran over to Garrus, who is lying in a pool of his own blood, and kneeling beside him. "Garrus?" After a moment of silence his eyes open, he gasps for air, and he tightens his grip on the sniper pulling it closer to him. "Garrus!" Garrus coughed up his blue blood and his eyes started to close. Ragan quickly ran towards him and starts applying medi-gel to him. "GARRUS!"

Miranda spoke up. "We can save him, but we have to hurry to the Normandy."

"R-right, let's go." John got one side and Ragan got the other and the team made their way to the Normandy, the Turian in tow. His life was hanging by a thread. Back on the Normandy, Garrus received medical attention, with Chakwas, Chloe, Mordin, Ragan, and surprisingly Miranda volunteering to help the wounded Turian. John was in the conference room pacing, not sure if he was going to come through. He then heard the door open and Jacob came in.

"How is he," John asked.

Jacob looked down. "Dr. Chakwas, Chloe and Mordin did all they could but he took a bad hit. He's been fitted some cybernetics and some surgery, so he'll have some functionality but…" The door opened and Garrus came walking in, like nothing happened, the left side of his face scarred. He was also in a new a military-grade blue-lit armor equipped with a dual-input communication headset.

"Shepard…"

Jacob chuckled a little. "Tough son of a bitch, didn't think he would be up yet."

"No one would give me a mirror. How bad is it?" John smirked a little.

"Hell Garrus, you were always ugly. Slap some face paint on that and no one will see the scars."

Garrus laughed but stopped in pain. "Oh don't make me laugh. Dammit my face is barely holding at it is. Aw well, it probably for the best. Everyone was always hitting on me an ignoring you, time to get a fair shot at it." John shook his head with a smile. Jacob gave a salute and left.

"So how are you, really?"

"I should be asking you the same. How did you join Cerberus?"

"Technically the Alliance and Cerberus is still having the truce. It's not like I had a choice, I was out of it for two whole years. It's only been weeks since I woke up," John said.

"Well I'm sure Tali will be ecstatic to know her bosh'tet is alive and well." Ragan came in and looked at Garrus.

"Damn Vakarain, didn't expect you be out of the med-bay this early. And Tali and I saw John on Freedom's Progress."

"Already saw her, she said she would join up with us as she's down with her mission," John said.

"That's good, after you died, everyone felt lost. Tali and Kiaden took it the hardest until Tali told your cousin and he basically went crazy. Trying to commit suicide in more ways than one," Garrus shook his head.

John lowered his head. "I know and I'm sorry for that." He looked at Garrus, "How are you and Liara?"

Garrus lowered his head. "I don't know where she is."

"I don't know because she didn't tell me anything but she was after some important person that had information about an old friend of hers," Ragan then walked to the back of the table and starts typing on the terminal.

"What," John was in disbelief. Liara leaving without a word of where she is going is not like her.

"After you died, she just disappeared, didn't even say goodbye," Garrus said. "Not even to me."

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be, I've been over it. So, where do I pack my things?"

Ragan then looked at Garrus and showed him the Normandy's new areas on the hologram. "Put it in the Forward Batteries, it has a bedding area also. Oh, and be so kind to see if can calabrate the guns down there. Some idiot," Ragan looks at John, "nearly blew them up."

"Thanks, just like old times, Ragan," Garrus said. "I'm fit for duty when ready, John."

After getting Garrus acquainted with the crew, John went to see Miranda. She was in her usually place, the desk doing paper work. Miranda was hug help earlier, her plan to go through the tunnel was almost brilliant and not to mention to the way she protected Garrus when he was out. It made him change the way he looked at her, that maybe they could be friends.

"Commande, what are you doing here?"

"Look I know I gave you a hard time when we met, but thanks." Miranda looked at him.

"For what?"

"For getting us out of there and for protecting Garrus."

"Just doing what the mission required. There's no need to thank me."

"Sure, you did."

"What are you talking about?"

"You may fool everyone with your ice bitch routine, but you don't fool me and Ragan. I saw your concern in your eyes when Garrus got hurt again when I got hit, by that Krogan and then there's Jac…"

"What's your point?"

"That you care, that you may not be the heartless Cerberus bitch you want everyone to believe you are. What I want to know is why do you try so hard?"

"I… have no idea what you're talking about," she flinched a little.

"Sure you don't." John then gave a smirk. "When you're ready to talk, I'll be here." He walks out of her room.

Miranda scoffed and got back to work. On her face was a sliver of a smile.


	79. Chapter 50: The Smiling Thief

Chapter 50: The Smiling Thief

John, Ragan and Garrus was on the crew deck, talking, reminiscing about the old days of fighting Rachni, the weird stuff they've seen. While it would never be like the old days, it was good to talk to someone who's been in the same mess as each other. While Mordin, Miranda and Jacob were just fine, he just missed the chemistry he had with his old crew. While talking, John came up with a crazy idea, making a reappearance back to the galaxy. "I'm sorry you said what," both Ragan and Garrus asked.

John looked at them. "I'm going to the Citadel."

"That's going to be a problem, considering we're basically affiliated with the truce," Garrus said.

John frowned. "But we're not…"

Garrus put his hand up. "It wouldn't matter to them, in their eyes you would be considered Cerberus. Not to mention, they don't 'believe' us about the Reapers."

"Oh, Vakarian. You are naïve," Ragan stated. "Sure this was made by Cerberus but the Alliance and Council allowed it. All I have to do is verify with a statement to C-Sec and they have go through the whole thing. You see millions of Cerberus vessels come onboard the Citadel since the truce and none of them have caused any problem."

"I guess you're right," Garrus gave a sigh.

"Good." John looked at Ragan. "Hackett told me over the QEC that I got reinstated on both the Spectre and Alliance. This mission is big and we'll need every help we can get." Garrus sighed, the Turian knew how stubborn and set John was but Ragan and John needed the help. Plus Ragan would make sure that C-Sec doesn't arrest anyone. Garrus looked at John, he had a determined look on his face, which he was going to do it regardless.

"There's no arguing with you, is there?"

"Nope," John said with a smirk.

"One thing about a Shepard, we can be stubborn but we are mainly determined," Ragan then lowered his head. "Even if you got adopted in the family, like I did."

"Fine, I'll go too, for support then this blows up in your face."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," John said dryly. Ragan laughed and tried to get himself stable. Then Miranda came and Ragan stopped. Miranda came up and gave Ragan a data pad.

"Since we're going to the Citadel, we need to pick someone up… Well three people." Ragan looked at Miranda. "Also, we need some supplies and better weapons. Turns out that the Collector's skin is almost like pure iron."

"Since when I am your fucking errand boy? And don't you know it's rude to eavesdrop," Ragan asked annoyed. Miranda rolled her eyes.

"Since you insist on asking the Council for help and it's not eavesdropping when I could hear your conversation from my room," she said. John looked at Ragan, who was about to slap her, but John shook his head and Ragan let it slide. "Good luck with that by the way." She left to go back to her room.

"Ice bitch," Ragan said after Miranda was out of earshot. "First she had feelings for me and next thing I know, I'm placed as an errand boy."

"She's… friendly…," Garrus said.

"Like sandpaper to the ass," John muttered.

"Worse than that. More like nails scratching an old fashion black board," Ragan shuttered at the thought.

**The Citadel**

The Kodiak arrived to Zakera Ward docks. John sent off a message to Anderson announcing his arrival. Considering they were able to dock, means that they are welcomed after a little project happened about a week ago. '_Can't believe that Cerberus tried to work on a project here and it mutated into some big man-eating fluff ball,_' John thought. The Citadel looked different; with its new security systems though considering what happened two years ago, John wasn't surprised. As he looked around, a voice startled him. A holo-ad was set up by the docks. On it was a woman in a hood, and it felt like her eyes were following him as he walked. "Commander Shepard. Enter the password and receive a free gift."

"Damn thing creeps me the hell out. How do these ads already know who I am," John asked.

Ragan was looking at his omni-tool and looked at John. "Because Hackett and TIM – the Illusive Man, Garrus. – gave information about the abductions not long ago. I asked that he keep me posted in the loop and they announce that you were reborn. But the security system doesn't know about you because it's new and no DNA samples from you."

"That's nice to know," Garrus said. "Let's just get to the Presidium."

"Got problem with Collectors? Try Kasumi's credit services!"

The three entered the light blue hallway with two large planes of glass to the left. A Turian C-Sec officer stood at the terminal in front on the entrance to the Wards. The Turian signaled them to stop. A blue beam went over them and hummed as the Turian scanned, a beep went off.

The officer activated his comm unit. "Shut it down… What… Do you seriously think – Yeah, okay. Sorry about the inconvenience, sir. Our scanners are picking up false readings. They seem to think you're… well, dead."

Ragan came up. "Death is not what must be but it had to be the way." The turian looked at Ragan and gave a sigh.

"Thank the Spirits you're here," the Turians said. He starts typing on his terminal. "Okay so the Council had authorized us to keep this a secret. Check with my Captain. He should be able to get your entered in the system and the Council will know that you finally came."

The entrance opened up allowing John and the team in, as they came out they heard a little shouting came out of one of the interrogation rooms. "Uh, Captain? We're not getting anywhere with him."

"Then beat it out him, I don't care, I want that smuggling operation located and I want it now!"

Garrus smirked. "Impressive."

The C-Sec Captain saw John approach his desk, he looked like one of those rough beat cops from one of those old crime shows John's dad used to watch when he was a kid. Another thing that was striking about the man that he was a pure blonde blue human, something that was very rare nowadays. "Ah, Commander John Shepard. Captain Armando Bailey. I see your problem. My console says you're dead for the public eyes."

"Yeah I heard," he said. "One of your men said you can help."

"Usually you'd have to go through the station's Security Administrations to reactivate your IDs. Then to Customs and Immigration to regain access to the Citadel itself. And probably a stop by the Treasury. Spending a year dead is a popular tax dodge," Ragan said.

The Spectre crossed his arms. "I bet."

"But I can see you're a busy man. And the Council had to do this because they weren't sure when you would come back," Bailey said unfazed by John's annoyance. Bailey hovered his finger over a button under his desk. "So how I press this button right here?" Bailey pressed several more buttons and his console beeped. "There. I just saved you about nine days of running around. That said, you should head up to the Presidium and tell them you're still alive. The Council probably wants to talk to one of who saved their scaly asses."

"That was the plan," Garrus said.

John walked towards one of the transport stations while he opened his omni-tool. He pressed a few buttons and a small screen popped up. While they were waiting for a transit, Garrus let out a small chuckle.

"What's so funny," John asked.

"If only that guy was in charge two years ago…," Garrus said.

"Better to have him than have me," Ragan said. "I would make them all work harder."

The ride to the Presidium was slow, but it allowed them to get a bird's eye view of the rest of the Citadel, John was curious how it fared after the Battle. A lot of the Citadel looked repaired or close to repair, John was impressed they got a lot of Citadel up in running after the devastation two years ago. "Seems things are coming along fine with the repairs."

Garrus scoffed. "Look again on this side." John looked on the right side of the transport, and looked shocked. It was different story on the other side, broken glass, warped beams and lots of scorched areas. And lots of scavengers on the ground looking for their next meal, if it wasn't the Citadel, John could have mistaken it for a third-world country back on Earth. "The richest part of the Presidium were repaired first and then the richest wards. The poor barely got attention, desperate for help; they came to some of the gangs, but…"

"They were taken advantaged of…," John frowned.

"Yeah, all the gangs that were small game before Saren's attack grew power and kicked the old guard out," Garrus said. "Once they were in charge, the mortality rate doubled in actually matched Omega one-time."

"What the fuck? Why didn't C-Sec do anything," John asked.

"C-Sec couldn't act due to the restructuring, Saren's attack spooked the Council and the rich bigwigs on the Presidium so much that they were pouring money into tightening security to cut the possibility of Geth infiltration, instituting 'no-fly' lists, barring weapons and bio-ams and even barring people for traveling in certain circumstances, no matter how unlikely the suspect," Garru said angrily. "By the time it was all said and down, we have over forty gangs in the lower wards and counting, and a murder just about every day, I got fed up with bureaucratic bullshit and left."

"For Omega…," Ragan said.

"Yeah a lot of good that did me," Garrus said bitterly.

"Don't beat yourself over it, Garrus," Ragan answered. "What we're doing is more important on galactic scale."

"I know, just seeing this pisses me off…," John said.

The vehicle landed just to the side of the Embassies. John sent a message to Anderson stating when he would arrive. John, Ragan and Garrus stepped out and made their way towards the human embassy. The doors slide open. Anderson was speaking with the tree other Council members.

"John should be here in any…," Anderson looked to the door to see John, Ragan and Garrus walk in. He was dressed in dark blue and red business suit. He gave a small smile, happy to see him; the Council on the other hand was less than pleased. "Oh, John. We were just talking about you."

"It's been a long time, Anderson," John said and shook his hand. "I hope the last couple of years treated you right."

"There have been some rough spots," Anderson replied. But then followed in a whispered tone, "It's good to have you back, son."

"We heard many rumors surrounding you unexpected return," Valern – the Salarian Councilor – interrupted. "Some of them are… unsettling."

"We called this meeting to explain yourself, John. We owe you that much after saving ours," Tevos – Asari councilor – said.

"I need your help. The Collectors have been abducting human colonists in the Terminus Systems. Worse. Hackett and TIM – a nickname instead of saying the Illusive Man – believe they are working for the Reapers."

"The Terminus systems are beyond our jurisdiction," Sparatus chided. "Your colonists knew this when they left Council space."

"And here we go again," Garrus muttered.

"You're missing the important part. They Reapers are involved," Anderson said.

Sparatus scoffed. "Ah yes 'Reapers,' Sparatus mocked while using finger quotes. "The immortal race of sentient starship allegedly waiting in dark space. We have dismissed those claims." He then looks at Ragan and gives a smile. "Then I guess it is true because Alliance said he wouldn't be back in the mission. Very well, if the Reapers are involved we need a plan."

"John, no one else encountered the hologram on Illos about the Reapers and only you and your squad ever spoke with Sovereign until Ragan gave them proof," Anderson said with a smile.

"Go back to Illos and talk to Vigil. Or look at Sovereign. It's obvious the tech is more advanced than ours," Ragan said.

"The hologram is no longer working and we have found nothing to suggest that Sovereign was not a Geth ship," Valern said. Ragan then looked at them.

"The Geth is capable of great technological advancement," Tevos said.

"This reaper theory just proves how much fragile your mental state is. You have been manipulated by Cerberus and Saren before," Sparatus said.

"If Sovereign was a Geth ship, then how come that there were no Geth on that ship? Also prove to me that Sovereign needed to understand millions of things at one time while Geth are unable to do so," Ragan said.

"We can't prove any of that," all three councilors said.

John sighed, after everything, he's down for them, he was on his own… again. "So this was a waste of time. Even if Hackett said that you reinstated me. Ragan left the Spectres and all of the chaos that has happened during the Battle of the Citadel, you are just doing that."

All three councilors had big smiles. Then Tevos started talking, "We had to make sure that you didn't have a control chip in your mind. And it seems that we were wrong."

"We are in a difficult situation, you are helping Cerberus after Ragan was forced out of spying, an enemy of the council. This is treason, a capital offense if it wasn't…"

"Wasn't for the truce," John interrupted Valern. John glared at them.

"You got some fucking nerve to doubt my loyalty. I sacrificed human lives to save your sorry asses, I deserve better than this," he was then playing along with the act. Ragan and Garrus looked at each other. Anderson then looked at the councilors and nodded his head. John was making sure that none of Cerberus was listening into this.

"Commander, please," Tevos said. "Maybe a compromise. Not a public show of support given your ties, but peripheral support."

"Meaning?"

"You keep a low profile and restrict your activities on the Terminus system, and we'll give you six men to help. All Spectres. But if you're right about the Collectors, then you may go to anywhere in the galaxy and we will only give you three Spectres to help. You can reject this offer if you like," Sparatus said. John scoffed, he already knew what that meant, he had to be a good boy and stay out of Council space to not embarrass them. Two years later and they were still arrogant assholes, he started to regret his decision to save them but without them, the Turian, Asari, and Salarians would be in complete Chaos.

"I'm sorry but reject the offer. I am only limited amount of crew on the new Normandy." That got the Councils' attention.

"It seems that Cerberus wasn't the only ones in that act. Alliance did a good, but yet bad call, to allow Cerberus to help them," Anderson said. "Good luck, John, we hope for a quick end to your mission with Cerberus and the Alliance," Tevos said. The images disappeared.

"Well that went better than expected. I'm glad you denied the offer because they were planning to get you some lazy Spectres that hardly do any jobs."

"Yeah, well as long they get out of my way I'm doing my job." The doors to the embassy opened up to reveal a disgruntled Udina. John groaned, of all the people he wanted to see the least, Udina was one of them and on top of the list of people not to see.

"Great, how did he get out," John asked. Ragan and Garrus were shocked about this and looked at Anderson.

"He got out because of his knowledge was better and that Ragan's proof was deleted from the systems. Cerberus deleted it about a year ago. And turns out that Morris was blamed and got the jail while Udina didn't get anything," Anderson sighed. Ragan and Garrus shook their heads in disbelief.

"Anderson we need to talk about…," Udina's eyes went to John, who glared back. "John… What are you doing here?"

"Oh you're here… To tell you the truth I was hoping you would be dead in some ditch or in jail but that didn't work out. So much for wishful thinking...," John said.

"And I was hoping you stay dead… so you're not the only one disappointed," Udina said.

Ragan looked at Udina and gave him the finger. "I suggest you shut up. I can't believe that the Council allowed you out."

"I invited John here to speak with the Council. We just finished our meeting," Anderson said.

Udina's eyes went wide, "You WHAT?! Councilor, do the words political shit-storm have any meaning to you?"

"The meeting went well. The Council has offered me to take six Spectres to investigate the missing colonies. But I had to deny the offer. So no shit storm for you," John said.

Udina's brows rose. "Yes… that is good." He looked at Anderson with a chastising look, "But you really shouldn't have made a decision like this without consulting me first… Councilor."

"You seem to forget that I don't answer to you, Udina," Anderson shot at him. "Sure they got Morris in jail and made you the Ambassador but why don't you go back to your office and think about that?"

"Of course Councilor." Udina said calmly. "Good day to both of you." He left, although he left with no problems John could tell that Udina was fuming, like he always did when he didn't get his way.

"Glad to see he hasn't change," John said sarcastically. He then smirked. "You enjoyed that."

"One of the few perks of this job. Sorry about him. Udina never should have gotten out but Morris was worse than him," Anderson said while shaking his head.

"Bitter bastard isn't he," Garrus said.

"That he is." They walked to the balcony to look over the Presidium. "But if you need something done, he knows who can do it. And he likes going to all those diplomatic functions that I can't be bother with."

"Seems like the years have going to hell for you," Ragan bluntly said.

"How have the last couple of years been for you," John asked.

"I didn't expect to spend my twilight years like this. It sometimes feels like I'm just banging my head against the wall. Knowing the truth about the Reapers is a goddamn nightmare stuff. I don't blame anyone else for not believing or acting like the Council did. Anyway I should be asking how you've been," Anderson said.

John sighed. "I owe my life Cerberus but without the Alliance, I would be worse shape. God the galaxy sure loves its sick jokes."

"I feel you. Glad Ragan is with you otherwise Hell would be there." Both men laughed while Garrus and Ragan shook their heads. "But don't let that anger get in the way of your mission."

"Don't worry I've been over it," John let out a sigh. "So where's Ashley, Jane, and Kaiden?"

"Commander Alenko is on an assignment. Top secret. I would tell you, but I don't want to compromising the mission. General Shepard is looking into the attacks and is asking to be transferred under your command. And Sergeant Williams is doing some investigations on the attacks at Freedom's Progress after your finds," Anderson then paused for a few seconds. "She lost her whole squad to the left over mechs." John then remembered what Tali and Ragan went through because of a heavy mech. "But I will contact them when it's over. I'm sure they'll be glad to see you again. I know General Shepard is glad to hear about you being back from the dead like your cousin, Lieutenant-Commander Shepard."

"Either that or they'll be pissed that I haven't sent him a message in two years," John chuckled.

"Can't exactly blame you for that. Being in a coma does that," Anderson said. "I've seen good people being in comas and they changed. But not you."

"I better go," John said.

"Of course, John. Just do me two favors and be careful. You can't trust Cerberus and make sure that you come back with the full squad."

"Preaching to the choir," Ragan said.

John and Ragan made their way back to the docks while Garrus was talking about C-Sec with Bailey, after doing some shopping, it was even good to see that the Council agreed with them and it was good to see Anderson again. They were just about to take the shuttle back when the advertisement screamed at them. Ragan quickly grabs his gun and aims at the advertisement.

"HEY! How long are you going to ignore me," John looked to the advertisement with a raised brow, now remembering he had to pick you someone. "Finally got your attention? I've been waiting around here for a few hours now." John looked up and saw the hooded woman jump down the met the duo. She wore a tight black catsuit with a hood, her lips had lipstick but only a small blck on her bottom lip. Her body language showed a very annoyed woman. Garrus came in and was shocked about what was going to happen.

"Kasumi right," John asked. Kasumi blinked.

"If you knew, then why," she asked.

"Hey don't blame him, most 'normal' people actually talk to people," he said walking away. "Anyway, if you're coming let's go."

"Wait, I have a friend, she's a Quarian, and you don't get me without her." John smiled.

"Trust me, I had a good Quarian with me the first time when we were after Saren," John said. Ragan shook his head and holstered his gun.

Kasumi then got a beep, she activated her omni-tool and an image of a Quarian appeared. "Lia?"

"Um, Kasumi I may have gotten into a bit of trouble," Lia said nervously.

"How big?"

"C-Sec is planning to arrest me, please help," she said meekly.

Kasumi sighed. "That girl… Can you help me?"

"Do I have a choice," John asked annoyed.

Kasumi laughed. "You are definitely Sakura's son."

John and Ragan looked at her. "How do you know my mother," John asked.

"Well I don't know her, I knew about her from my mom, Megumi Sakai." John's eyes widen.

"Sakia? That was my mom's maiden name," John said. "Wait you couldn't be…"

Kasumi smiled. "Hi cuz. And brother." Ragan was confused.

"I'm an only child," Ragan said. He was in disbelief about Kasumi being his sister.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Yes I made Ragan have a sister at the time. It had to make him feel a little uncomfortable at the time but later, he grows to like her. This is how it is. Ragan is Kasumi's half brother, and Megumi divorced Ragan's father, Seto Kaiba, and married another man and Kasumi came along. Ragan is six years older than John. So Ragan is twelve years older than Kasumi. Ragan never knew his real mother because during the time that his father and mother divorced, he stayed with his father and his father married a woman but got killed when Ragan was who years old by Geth. Later Ragan was apoted by John's uncle, and Ragan took the name Shepard because of it.**


	80. Chapter 51: Family History

Chapter 51: Family History

As John, Ragan and Garrus made their way to Kasumi's friend on the Citadel, they were still wrapping their heads around the fact; the next member of the Normandy crew was in fact a relative of John and Ragan. At first, John and Ragan didn't believer here and asked for some proof, she did which she opened a halo of her family, and they saw John's mother as a little girl sitting with her younger sister Megumi. Then she showed Ragan proof of that the woman Seto Kaiba was with, after the divorce, wasn't his real mother. Birth certificates, school records, everything that wasn't deleted in Japanese government because they started deleting Intel about thirty years ago when it was just taking space. John couldn't help but smile, it was good to see that part of his family; it made him feel whole. But Ragan wasn't sure of this.

"Who would have guessed," Garrus said.

"Yeah, I know a lot about people on my dad's side, but when I asked about my mom's side, things became awkward." He remembered the long silences, the awkward answers for why he could see his mom's family. It gotten to the point where John had stopped asking, because it was obvious he wasn't going to get an answer. He would hope Kasumi could share with him some stories, how his Aunt and Uncle were like, what his grandparents were like, and why they never bothered to contact his family, especially after Mindoir.

"I know what you mean, I knew that my mom had a sister, but she never talked about her, especially when it came to if she had a kid," Kasumi said.

"How did you find out," John asked.

"My mom had a diary and I kind of hacked it," Kasumi smirked. John and Ragan raised a brow. "Hey, it wasn't like she would tell me."

"What you find out," Ragan asked.

"Yeah, I'm curious too," John said.

Kasumi smiled. "Okay, first things first, our family came from money. You see, the Sakai family is one of the richest families in Tokyo." Kasumi went on explaining that the Sakai family owned a huge electronics company that owned Aldrin Lab, the leading Human manufacturer of armor, omni-tools, and bio-amps that was used for the Alliance. The company that owed Aldrin Labs is also well known for making other things like holovisions, QEC, game systems, and other electronics; it was called Sony. Sony purchased Aldrin Labs to show that they cared about the Alliance. This info surprised John, his mom was from a very rich family, she could have lived her life in luxury, but instead she became a simple school teacher on a small farming colony.

"Really? I wonder why mom never said anything," John asked.

"It wasn't a happy time, as much as we like to think we've advanced, some things stay the same. Your mom was actually offered to someone else," Kasumi said.

"Wait, you mean like an arranged marriage," John asked.

"Īe tawagoto nai, Shārokku," Ragan said.

"Fuck you Watson," John countered and shot back. "Don't ever say 'No shit, Sherlock' in Japanese ever again."

"Yeah, exactly what I meant – well the marriage," Kasumi continued. "She was promised to Seto Kaiba, member of the Kaiba household, another rich family, since she was little. Seto is Ragan's father but they got a divorce after they found out that Hiroshi Sanada was richer than him." Ragan shook his head.

"That there must be the fucking bullshit like the Council," Ragan muttered. John and Garrus laughed while Kasumi looked at them. But that ended when Ragan's omni-tool started beeping and he left the group to get the message.

John's eyes went wide, "So the man that was richer than my first uncle to marry my mom is my uncle. What changed?"

Kasumi smiled. "Your father. Do you know how your mom and dad met?"

"Yeah, it was the only thing I could get out of them," John looked at his omni-tool and started typing on it. "Dad had gotten an Alliance scholarship for engineering, and went to the University of Tokyo, since it had one of the best engineering programs on Earth, that was when he met mom."

"According to my mom's diary, it was love at first sight. However…"

"I take it grandpa was not happy."

"Neither was my father. Ragan's father didn't want to marry your mother, he said that she wasn't a good type for him. Sanada only wanted the money and prestige, he would be damned if a gaijin got the way, it almost turned violent."

"Huh, I never knew," John said.

"They eloped, my mother was the only to know but it didn't last. Grandpa Ginrei found out and threatened to disown her if she didn't tell him."

John scoffed. "Then he disowned my mom." Kasumi shook her head.

"No, not right away, in fact grandpa though Auntie Sakura would come to her senses. He did it after one significant event."

John clenched his fist. "When me and Jane were born…"

Kasumi nodded sadly. "Yeah, it was down quietly of course, so it wouldn't embarrass the family. But he came to his senses after what happened on Mindoir and you and Jane joined the Alliance. So now you and Jane are in the will. And he wanted to see you but he got in poor health. A fatal heart attack that took down nearly seventy-five percent of his heart to stop working instantly."

John was silent for a while, which worried Garrus and Kasumi, he wanted to hear about his family, but instead he got the opposite. The reason he never knew that side was because he and his sister were the embarrassments, the skeleton in the closet. Now he understood why his parents never told him, because they didn't want him to think he was a mistake, after all the most damaging thing you could say to a child that he was unwanted. "What about you?"

Kasumi looked down. "Hiroshi married my mom, and a couple years later I was born. It wasn't a marriage of love, like your parents, it was one of the convenience, Hiroshi never loved mom, just the prestige that comes with being affiliated with a Sakai, it was even more clear after her death."

"I'm sorry…," John said.

"Don't be. When I got older, I left and changed my name and never looked back."

"Well welcome aboard cuz," John said with a smile. They made it to the lower wards and saw a female Quarian, a Human C-Sec officer, and a volus. The Quarian had on a grey and white suit, she looked how Tali was when he met her two years ago. She was arguing with the very irate Volus with a C-Sec officer trying to break them up. The Quarian looked at the team approaching.

"Kasumi-kun," Lia said excitedly. Kasumi smiled and nodded. Ragan was walking from behind the C-Sec officer.

"What's going on here," Ragan asked.

"Sorry trying to take a statement here," the officer said. He quickly turns around and jumps when he sees Ragan.

"There's nothing to talk about. She stole my credit chit," the volus angrily pointed at Lia. "Arrest her!" Ragan got up to the Volus and looked at him.

"How would you like it if I said that you race was the worst kind. I mean, really, you are so small I can trip over you and then I would SUE YOUR FUCKING ASS," Ragan yelled. The officer flinched when he heard Ragan's voice.

"I did not, I told you I was just waiting here for my friend and this Volus bumped into me. You are blaming me because I'm a Quarian."

"Stop and take a deep breath, all three of you," the officer said. Ragan then got out of the Volus's face and shoved him but didn't make him fall over.

"I spent time on a ship with a Quarian. Not all Quarians are what you think they are," Ragan said.

"You're mocking me, Earth-clan," the Volus said angrily. "Just because of the vol-clan needs…"

"And you need to shut up before I can make this a fucking Hellfire and brimstone," Ragan narrowed his eyes at the Volus, who flinched before trying to take a deep breath.

"Officer, I know this girl, she didn't steal anything and she's a good kid," Kasumi said.

"I was just waiting here after checking out the stores and this guy just bumps into me, seconds later he runs up with C-Sec and accuses me for stealing," Lia said.

"Maybe the chit fell," Garrus said.

"Maybe, all I know is that I didn't do it," she said.

"You could have stashes it for later, we know how you Quarians are like," Ragan looked at the officer and pointed his gun at him.

"Don't even try," Ragan said. "Discrimination and being a dirty cop is not looking good for you."

"I suggest you put the weapon away," John said. Ragan did what John told him. "What? How the fuck do you know? Did she have it?"

"Uh, well no," the officer said.

"So you're accusing this girl and you don't have proof? I think you two need to get the fuck out of here." The C-Sec officer's stance grew threating.

"How about I run you for Obstruction of Justice," the Office sneered. Ragan grabbed his collar.

"What part of any of this is justice," Ragan hissed. "You're an insult to the uniform."

"Get your hands off of me, before I arrest all of you," the officer said before being lifted up by Ragan's arm.

"Tell me do you know what above the law means," Ragan smiled. The C-Sec officer looked at him with wide eyes. "It means a Spectre and anyone working with him, guess what I am?"

The officer's eyes grew wider. "Uh… I… Uh," he stammered. Ragan dropped him.

"Now that you know, get out of here, before I decide to use it," Ragan threatened. The Volus and the officer ran away before Ragan pulled his gun and shot the officer in the leg. "I warned you and now you pay."

Lia ran to Kasumi and hugged her. "Thank you, onē-san," she said. She looked at Ragan, John and Garrus. "So you found them?"

"Yep, we'll be working with them," Kasumi said. Lia walked in front of them and bowed. Ragan returned a bow.

"Kon'nichiwa. Watashitachiha, sono C-byō-kan wa hanarete anata o totta mae ni, watashitachi wa koko ni kite yorokonde iru," Ragan said. Lia was glad that she wasn't the only one that spoke Japanese.

"Arigatō," Lia said.

The team walked back to the ship, Lia seemed to be in good spirits despite the Volus and the C-Sec officer acting like jackasses to her. Lia was very perky Quarian, but it could have been because she was a young on. They had to stop sometimes, because of Lia curiosity, which meant she hasn't been traveling for long. "I'm surprised, Lia know some Japanese words," Ragan said.

"I taught her some when she was younger," Kasumi said.

"Really? She's for pilgrimage age now, how did you get the Migrant Fleet to let you in," John asked.

Kasumi looked at him. "Lia wasn't born on the Migrant Fleet. She's a nedas."

"A who?"

"She's a child of exiles," Kasumi said sadly. "She knows next to nothing about Quarian culture, other than what her parents have told her."

"So how does she have a suit if she's exiled?"

"Another exile made a suit for her. It was a community of exiles, that's where she was born."

"You do realize that a child of an exile can return to the Migrant Fleet," Ragan said. "I studied the culture."

"Her parents that she can go to the Migrant Fleet but she didn't want to do anything like that," Kasumi said. "She wanted to be with her family. And I treat her like a little sister."

"So that's why you wanted me to accept her along with you," John finally realized.

"Yeah, there's a chance for her to reconnect with her culture. It was a final wish from her parents. They died at an Japanese Village about eighteen years ago, thanks to Cerberus," Kasumi then saw Ragan shake his head.

"Very funny," Ragan said. "My village was burnt to the ground because of Cerberus."

"Where at?"

"Hayabusa Village was in the middle of Tadasu no Mori."

"That's where her parents died. She was seven when they died."

"I can respect that," John said. "SO is that only thing that needs to be resolved." Kasumi smirked.

"Well…," she said.

John sighed. "What is it?"

"My deal with Cerberus and Alliance was to gain your assistance in retrieving something that belongs to me."

"What exactly?"

"My former partner, Keiji Okota's greybox. Keiji came across some Alliance information. Very important information. He was caught and killed by a criminal warlord by the name of Donovan Hok, who wanted this information."

"What did he find?"

"He didn't say. Keiji just said that it could cause a war," Kasumi said.

"Perfect...," John muttered. The team arrived at the Normandy.

"Wow…," Lia was in awe. "This is yours?"

"Yep, welcome aboard kid. You'll be rooming with Kasumi," John said.

"Okay," she said and went off to explore the ship.

"Just one question Kasumi, what skills does she have? This isn't a pleasure cruise," Ragan asked.

"She's pretty good with tech, not as good as someone from the Fleet, but she did design my stealth cloak." Ragan heard Kasumi and gave her a smile. "What?"

"I might need to get a cloak like that then," Ragan said.

John smirked. "She's going to fit in with Engineering Deck, she can learn from Donnelly, Adams, and Daniels until Tali comes on board."

Kasumi raised a brow. "Who's Tali?"

John blushed. "She's my… uh… girlfriend from the Migrant Fleet."

Kasumi smirked. "So that's why you," she then looked at Ragan, "were quick to defend Lia. I can't wait to meet her, all the family stories I could share."

"We don't have family stories, I just found out I got a thief for a cousin just today and an ex-Cerberus-lab-rat as a cousin two years ago on Eden Prime," John joked at Ragan.

"I wasn't a lab rat. It was a mission that went wrong," Ragan said before heading towards Joker's station, but finds Joker is not in his seat.

"I know, just teasing you. Have to make lost time somewhere," she joked. She then disappeared. "I'll see you later, cuz." John sighed and Garrus chuckled.

"What," John asked.

"You have the weirdest taste in recruiting," Garrus said.

"Recruited you didn't I?"

"Point taken. Things have gotten a lot more interesting," Garrus said with a smirk. Ragan comes up mumbling something under his breath, which made Garrus look at him with a confused look.

John rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I just wonder how long before Miranda finds out."

"SHEPARD," Miranda yelled.

John groaned. "This is going to be fun," he muttered. Back on the ship, John helped Lia and Kasumi accustomed to the crew. The crew just adored Lia, especially Gabby and Donnelly, he smirled at that, it reminded him of the old days of how Adams and the engineers treated Tali. As for Kasumi, she settled in just fine, she was quite popular with some of the male members of the crew. Kasumi, despite being thief based on stealth was very sociable, when she wasn't disappearing to keep her skills sharp. After getting them settled in John went to see Miranda, who had calmed down from her tirade on bring in people who were not part of the mission plan.

"Listen here, Miranda," Ragan said as John walked in. "You don't have any say so in this matter. This is Alliance mission, not Cerberus. So if you want to be like that, and act like Cerberus needs to do something while the Alliance needs to stay out of your fucking asses, then I will kick your ass from one end of the ship to the other then kick it from Earth to where the Mars is." Ragan was ferious and sat down. "This is your last goddamn warning."

Miranda looked up and saw John smiling at Ragan. "So, how's our newest members," she asked.

"Fine, the crew loves them, they really lightened up the place."

Miranda scoffed. "This is a war ship not a cruise, if they can prove their usefulness, then they can stay."

Ragan then got an idea. "And you haven't been useful at all, so I'm going to throw your ass out of here." Miranda then looked at him and started thinking of what she said. "You're being a hypocrite Miranda. You are not useful but yet you want them to be useful when you are to be the example."

John rolled his eyes. "You're not throwing her off the ship. You do that, then I will make sure that your weapons are sabotaged." Ragan grew wide eyed when he heard that. John then looked at Miranda. "I just wanted to ask you something." Ragan then left the room before it got in a heated battle between him and Miranda.

"What," she asked doing paperwork.

"Did Cerberus know that Kasumi was my cousin and Ragan's half-brother?"

Miranda looked at him. "No, we did not, though the Illusive Man had suspected something when he mentioned your and Hackett mentioned Ragan's, she took their offer very quickly. Why?"

"Nothing just curious…," John said while turning.

"John, I know you have concerns about our organization, but we aren't as evil as people think. I hope that one day you'll see that."

"Maybe or never… we'll see in the future," John said while walking away.


	81. Chapter 52: The Convict part 1

Chapter 52: The Convict part 1

Purgatory was big. Though John didn't feel particular awed, he'd been face to face with a Reaper after all, but it was… surprising that such a massive station could exist in space, solely with the purpose of housing criminals. John saw the Blue Suns at the entrance and could only smirk at the irony of the situation. The Blue Suns were no darlings of law enforcement themselves and yet were in charge of playing warden for the worse scum in the galaxy, how could he not find it funny?

"I wonder how much it cost to upkeep this place," Kasumi asked.

Ragan cleared his throat. "I doubt we want to find out. The warden might have sold criminals to get some money for this place. But like I said: I doubt we want to find out."

"Come one," John said.

As the team moved, the team is confronted by several guards that insist the squad relinquish their weapons. "This is a high security vessel, please drop all your weapons," one of the guards said. 'How stupid do they think John and I am,' Ragan thought. The team instantly raised their weapons, and a standoff took place. He and the others could kill the guards easily and John would be happy to send them to an early grave himself, but according to Miranda, he had to play nice if they were going to get their new recruit out of there. He and the team had a bad feeling about this.

"Go to hell," John said while signaling Ragan to throw his sword.

"Everyone stand down," a voice said. A Turian in blue armor walked down to meet John. The guards stood down. "Commander, welcome to Purgatory," he said politely. "I'm Warden Kuril, as this is my ship; you are to relinquish all your weapons." Ragan was about to throw his sword but Kasumi stopped him.

"And I said go to hell," John said. The two stared down until the Warden sighed.

"I'm sorry but we can't allow that," Kuril pointed at the team. "Kill them." That was when Ragan took his sword and jabbed it in one of the Batarian's chest then pulled out his heart. "What are you two doing? I said kill them." Both of the guards were scared when their comrade was killed when Ragan put so much pressure on the heart, it exploded.

The guards look at each other and dropped their weapons.

Kuril was about to shoot them but Ragan looked at him with a murderous glare. "Don't even try. I can kill you in more ways than you think Warden."

The Warden sighed. "You can proceed, this ship is more than capable of handling three armed people. Even a person that just killed one of my men," he was surprised at Ragan's abilities.

"As long as we understand," John said. "Now, I'm sure you want me to relieve you of one of your guests?" John held back a grimace at the casual question. He had… issues with the whole thing. This was a lot like buying a slave, and after knowing what Talitha went through, it made him sick to his stomach.

"Yes, as soon as your funds clear, of course," Kuril said. "Until then Jack will stay in cryo."

"Of course," John said. 'Cryo, exactly how dangerous is this guy?'

"What did he do," Ragan asked. Kuril shook his head.

"Jack is not a 'he' but a 'she'," John and the team were surprised. "She took one of my guards and slammed him to the wall thus killing him."

The Warden and the team made their way through the prison, John took the moment to look around the prison. While it looked nothing special, it definitely looked hard to break out of as he saw two prisoners that were fighting being separated by kinetic energy fields. Form the looks of the tech, the Blue Suns were funded well. "I must admit… I'm impressed," he said.

"As you should," Kuril commented. "Escape attempts are rare and always unsuccessful, even if they did get out… where would they go? We're in space, there's are reason I put this facility in space."

"Do you sell a lot of prisoners? It strikes me as bad for business if these client planets of yours got wind of you selling what you're supposed to guard," Ragan said barely containing his disgust.

"When it happens we stop taking the fee from the criminal's home world along with an assurance that the prisoner will not be a problem for them any longer, those that buy the prisoners usually do so to personally kill them, you see," the Warden said.  
"How noble of you," Kasumi said dryly. He then stopped at the intersection in the corridor, the rest of the group grounding to a halt as the man turned to his guests.

"What happens if the prisoner's home world doesn't pay," Ragan asked.

Kuril looked at him and gave a sigh, "We explain to them that we need their money to keep the planet safe. If they don't pay, then we drop off the prisoner on the planet at an random location and time." Ragan's eyes widened.

"Excoriation racket," Ragan said.

"You don't have to like my motives but don't question my ways of getting this done." Kuril then looked at John. "This is where we part ways; I will make sure Jack is prepared for transport. Keep following this corridor and you'll be in processing. Can't miss it." John nodded as Kuril walked away. As the team walked down the processing room, they were met with a disturbing sight of one of the Blue Suns beating one of their prisoners. Next they saw some of the other prisoners, some more disturbed than others.

"I don't like this place," Kasumi said. "I have a bad feeling about this…"

"I know what you mean. I keep on expecting them to double-cross us," Ragan said. He had his hand on the pistol just in case they try to double-cross the team, he would shoot them.

"Hey, don't jinx us now," John said.

They continued down the hallway until they reach the door to out-processing. The room was surprising large; a few empty desks ahead making it look like something akin to a large reception area, something one might use to stripe prisoners before they were moved into. The tech at the entrance directed them to the door at the end of the room.

John opened the door and the intercom opened.

"My apologies Shepard, you're more valuable as a prisoner than customer," the warden's voice was heard. John sighed and looked at Ragan.

"I told you not to jinx us," John said.

Ragan laughed and shook his head. "But yet, I was right."

"Um, boys maybe we can finish this later," Kasumi said pointing to the door behind them.

"Drop your weapons and enter the cell. No harm will be done," John then grabbed his M-77 Paladin and shot the intercom.

"Go to hell," John said.

The guards and mechs flooded the room. "Oh… right. Get to cover!" The team follow suit. The first wave was a couple of cechs and FENRIS mechs, Ragan gave the team sniper support, but the gear of the mercs proved to be very tough. Kasumi disappeared and was behind the opposition, catching the mercs off guard as the theif gunned them down with her SMG. Ragan went in the vents and traveled up to the top of the room. The FENRIS mechs came in rushing for John trying to bulldog him out of cover. John used his Singularity field to lift them and destroy them with a warp field. The comm opened.

"Don't bother, I have enough guards to beat even you Commander, make it easy on yourself. Proceed into the cell and I'll forget you put up a fight," Kuril said.

"An endless supply of cannon fodder, I don't know you cared. And nope… can't really see myself surrendering to a two-bit slaver like you."

"You will regret this later…" Kuril growled. "You're worth a fortune alive… but dead will work too."

"You're not first two-bit slaver to threaten me and you won't be the last," John said. "Bring it, I'm right here." The Spectre then heard some clacking near the door and LOKI mechs came in and fired on Kasumi. Ragan quickly jumps off the ceiling and lands on a mech. The thief disappeared and reappeared to John said with a very annoyed look on her face.

"You and you big mouth…," she said annoyed. John shrugged and got his arc projector out and blasts the group of mechs and guards. Ragan saw him get the gun and quickly slid under the bolt before it hit the guard behind him, who has about to shoot him. 'emI guess Ragan does well with evading. Never seen him do that, must be a ninja now,' John thought. Kasumi threw flash bang to blind the enemy while Ragan mowed them down with his assault and melee attacks. The area was cleared after a few seconds.

"Let's go," John orders. The team pushed the enemies and went through the corridor after corridor, until they reached an office. A man in white coat tried to fire on John but his gun didn't even damage his shield. John raised the pistol and shoots the man in the head. "Look the door." Kasumi nodded but Ragan was typing on the control panel.  
After a few seconds, Ragan got up and headed over to cryo controls. "John." John looks at him. "I found the cryo controls."  
"Nice, then we can release Jack," he said.

"You sure about this, Jack was placed here because of smashing a guy in the wall. Plus," he pointed at the other cells, "from the looks of it releasing Jack, will release the other prisoners."

"Do it, we can use the confusion to find Jack," John said.  
Ragan sighed. "Okay…" Ragan pressed the release button. The arms came up and grabbed a cylindrical container. The container opens, revealing Jack; the Warden was right about – Jack wasn't a 'he' but a 'she'. But a small woman. Even by prisoner standards she was poorly dressed, her pants hung low on her bony hips and were torn and covered in brown grime, her boots looked equally damaged and filthy… and unless one counted the tattoos covering her body that was all she wore. She even lacked hair.

"That's Jack," Kasumi asked in disbelief.

"She doesn't look so dangerous…," John said. He then saw her hand move. Three YMIR mechs activated. She was waking up, and clearly angry at her incarceration. Jack broke out of her restraints and doubled over still weak from the cyro-sleep. The YMIR mechs faced Jack and started to aim their guns at the woman. She then started to glow blue. Her biotic power was unlike anything Ragan and John had seen, it was like her power was seeping from her skin, unable to contain it all within her small body. Even from the control room, they could see Jack's biotics bend and distort the metal from her prison. She glared murderously at the mechs and with a feral roar; she charged at the mechs and ripped them apart like tissue paper. One of the mechs tried to fire at her but she held out her hand and engulfed the mech in dark energy and started to crush it like an aluminum can until it ruptured and exploded. The last and final mech fired a missile at the woman and she bioticly stopped the missile and threw it back like it was nothing, when it was staggered she rushed the mech unleashes her massive biotic powers. The force of her powers were so great it cause the team to stagger back. She then ran off as the alarm sounded.

"Holy…," John said in awe.

"Damn," Ragan was in shocked. He never seen anyone like her. "Remind me not to get in a fight with her."

"So that's why they needed three heavy mechs to guard her," Kasumi said. "She's a one woman army."

"We have to get down there," Ragan said.

"Let's go," John ordered. The team went down stairs only to find that she had blasted a hole in the wall and while the YMIRS were in ruins. John was starting to wonder if he wanted someone that powerful and volatile on his ship. His thoughts were then interrupted by an alarm.

"Warning. Warning," the ship VI said. "All prisoners have escaped, repeat all prisoners have escaped. Cellblock 3, 5, 6, and 11 have been destroyed. No survivors."

The com opened throughout the ship. "All guards, all guards. Restore order; stop the prisoners, letha force is authorized. But do not kill Jack. Stun her and bring her out of here so I can kill her."

"They're attacking Jack," Kasumi said. The rumble of the ship almost made the team fall over.

"Even worse, I think the ship's coming down," Ragan said. He then presses a few buttons on his omni-tool and his magnets in his boots came online. "I got mag-boots online. I suggest we have them on otherwise, we will be sliding down if the ship is descending to a planet or that another shockwave makes us loose our balance."  
John groaned. "Why can't things ever be simple for once," he muttered. The team raced to find Jack and all round them they had to face Blue Sun guards, crazy escaped prisoners, and a ship going down. Time was not on their side.


	82. Chapter 52: The Convict part 2

Chapter 52: The Convict part 2

"Sections 1, 7 and 8 have lost power," the VI said. "No surviors."

"Damn it," Kuril said on the com. "Jack's loose and she is killing everyone! All units! Jack's loose! I need all units to recapture her! Kill Shepard and his team if found." Chaos was the word to describe what was happening in Purgatory. After releasing Jack from cryo, everything went to hell, the prisoners got out of their cells and instead of trying to escape; they decided to fight back; however this distraction was perfect for the team, made it easier to move around the ship. Until they had to fight both the Blue Suns and the prisoners, while not a problem, annoyed John to no end.

"Where do you think she went," Kasumi asked.

"She probably joined in with the fighting," Ragan said. "You saw what she did to those mechs back there. Shit, I think she could do worse than that."

Ahead, an explosion rocked the corridor; black smoke in from the wall to the left as it broke apart, three men in rags stumbling out. One crying out in victory as he raised a steel rod smeared in blue blood, his other arm dragging the broken body of the Turian guard behind. He threw down the body as his buddies started to beat on the corpse with a sickening glee. John frowned at the sight, he had no problem killing Blue Suns, but he had a problem with defiling a corpse like they did. He was ruthless yes, but he drew the line of sadism. The three men heard their approach and turned to attack with one of them screaming something incoherently, as he took out a grenade and ran towards them. Ragan quickly threw his chain kunai and redricted the man back to his group but before he did that the man slid off. John calmly raised his hand and blew the man back with biotic throw, knocking him and his friends to the ground. The Spectre then too out his gun and shot the grenade and it went off with a boom, the explosion tearing the prisoners into little lumps of torn flesh that flew in all directions.

"I may not have liked how they did business, but there's a reason those people are here," Ragan said. He quickly takes the chain and brings it back the kunai to his hand.

"Yeah," John said. "Without Purgatory, the galaxy's better off with them dead…" The team made it out of the corridor, as more and more of the ship was falling apart. Although the Blue Suns were formidable, they just didn't have the sheer numbers that the prisoners had and worse they were starting to out gun the mercs.

"Return to your cells or I'm opening the entire airlocks on the ship," Kuril said over the com.

"Kuril has lost control of this place. He's getting desperate."

"Anything that will kill the prisoners he will do – even if it kills him and his men." Ragan said. "Heavy mech incoming." The mech cam in guns blazing mowing down prisoners left and right. When they were all dead, the mech had the team in its sights. The mech was reinforced by more Blue Suns. John got out his heavy weapon and fired. The blast of electricity finished the guards but not the heavy mech.

"Ragan and Kasumi, overload its shields," John said. Ragan quickly jumped out of cover and started throwing arc grenades. Kasumi was using overload until Ragan started attacking the mech with his melee attacks. Just like Saren's shields, Ragan's attacks were going through the shields like wet tissue paper. '_Can't believe the Alliance gave the man Inferno IV Marker armor,_' John thought, '_That armor makes melee attacks do some damage if you're not a biotic inside of that armor._' John gave firing support with his submachine gun. "Anytime would be nice," John said. Kasumi raised her arm and blasted the shields. Ragan quickly jumps away from the mech while John used his arc projector to finish it off.

Another wave of mercenaries came through the corridor. Kasumi pulled out a grenade, "Flash bang!" She tossed the grenade at the charging group. The squad took cover behind the crates but Ragan shook his head. The grenade exploded and flashed, stunning the group of mercs. John and Ragan then finished them off. They ran to the door to see Kuril killing more prisoners.

"You're valuable John, I could have sold you and lived like a king," Kuril said angrily. "But you're too much trouble; at least I can recapture Jack and take your crew for selling."

"If you couldn't catch me what makes you think you can catch Jack – let alone, my crew," John said. "Face it, you lost. This whole operation is done, I'll see to it."

"I do the hard things civil governments are unwilling to do! This is for the good of the galaxy."

"That's like telling us that the Batarians kill Humans because we don't know our places and it would be good for us to all die," Ragan laughed. "I'm sorry but John won't be pulling the trigger. But I will." Kuril's eyes grew wide. When he heard Ragan said he would kill him; that made Kuril scared.

"You're a two-bit slave trader," John said with venom. "And I'm shutting you down, Ragan won't be killing you." John blasted the ward with a warp but it dissipated instantly. "What?!"

Kuril laughed as a blue barrier enveloped him. "You can't win John, I have a lot more tricks under my sleeves." The team tried different tactics to deal with the warden but the barrier stooped their efforts cold.

"Shit, we're not getting anywhere with this," John said.

"We were almost out of heat skins and thermal clips; we need to finish this," Ragan said.

"Guys do you hear that," Kasumi asked. John and Ragan looked at her.

"Like what," Ragan asked in a confused way.

"Like someone yelling," she said. The yelling grew louder. Kasumi pointed up. "Look."

A blue light came falling in and landed on the warden's barrier, Kuril paled. "J-Jack, what are you," he asked in fear. Jack gave a feral roar and blasted the bubble over and over with shockwaves. Kuril laughed. "It's pointless, not even you can break this, give up Jack." She ignored him.

"What's she doing," Ragan asked. "Doesn't she know that all she is doing is tiring herself out?" The team watched as she blasted it more and more.

"Give it up, Jack," the warden said becoming more nervous. The barrier faded in and out from the strain.

"Ragan switch to your melee attacks and use all your force into it," John said. "The barrier can't handel sustained hits." Ragan quickly jumped up and did a fist biotic slam on the barrier; breaking it. Kuril looked at Ragan with shocked eyes and quickly shot him, but Ragan evaded like the wind. After a few seconds, the barrier was back on but weaker state this time. John glowed blue and gave a nod to Kasumi.

While John and Jack pounded the barrier with biotics, Ragan and Kasumi fired with their weapons; the barrier could not handle the strain and eventually burst again. Now there was nothing to between the warden and Jack's wrath.

"Jack, please, maybe we can work something out," Kuril said backing up on the ground. Jack held her murderous gaze on Kuril. Jack lifted him with her biotics and threw him to floor. Jack wasn't done as she walked towards the frightened Turian and grabbed him as she slammed her glowing fist into the Turian.

A gasp escaped Kuril, the warden desperately reaching up to grab at the woman's hands… only for her to growl and crush the Turian's hand causing Kuril to howl in pain. She then grab the Turian by the throat, Kuril gasped for air trying to struggle, but it was all in vain, Jack was stronger than he thought. Jack glowed a brilliant blue as a biotic field enveloped both of them and then the team heard a crack, it was the Turian's plates starting crack from the pressure.

Ragan flinched when seeing it, John understood; it was never easy to see someone stronger than you do some brutal killing in such a way even if he was a crook. Jack continued her execution, as her biotic field corroded the Turian's body so much that her hands were being drenched in blue blood. She reminded John of a Korgan under blood rage, as she gave great roar and glow bright making the team cover their eyes. When they could see again, Kuril was on the ground as nothing more bloodied husk, the team barely recognized him. They looked at Jack, she was out of breath, that display of power while impressive took a lot out of her, but that didn't stop her flaring at Kuril's corpse with intense hatred. She then eyed John and the team. "What the hell do you want," she growled.

A Turian and a Batarian came running but Ragan quickly jumped up high in the air and kicked the Batarian in the face then threw him in the wall. The Turian looked at him. "Stop," is all the Turian said until Ragan lifted him and cut his troat.

"My name is John. I came to get you out."

Jack glared at him. "Fuck you. You don't fool me I saw that ship on the way here, you're with Cerberus," she glowed blue. "You aren't getting me, you prick!"

"Cerberus and the Alliance are having a truce with the Council right now," Ragan said. "So we are not with Cerberus because I'm still a Lieutenant-Commander of the Alliance Marines."

John nodded, "If I was with Cerberus, you'd be dead, not being asked to join my team."

A snort escaped the woman. "You think I'll go with you? Fuck you!"

"How eloquent of you," John said sarcastically. "Look, I won't force you to come, but if you ask me staying her seems a bit…"

"Stupid," Ragan said.

"Yeah, that the word," John looked back and gave a smile.

"Who are you calling stupid, you shithead," Jack snarled, hands curling into new fists as the biotic energy around her once more surged into life, making Kasumi tense up. Ragan aimed at her shoulder and shot Jack. She recoils back from the pain. "You son of a…" Ragan was walking to her.

"You are the stupid one," Ragan said. "The ship is coming apart and you're arguing with the only people willing to take you along, so year stupid."

"Brother…," Kasumi said nervously. "Maybe pissing her off further isn't such a good idea…"

"I take you along, and you decide rather leave or stay. No strings attached," John said.

"There's always strings attached," Jack snarled. "I don't trust you."

"Please, you don't trust anyone," John said a little pleased by the surprised look he received from his observation. "Now… I don't have all day, and by the sound of things, neither does this station… your call."

"Not good enough! You're working with Cerberus! You want my help? I want to know what Cerberus' got on me," she said.

"Deal," John simply said.

Jack blinked, the anger replaced by confusion. "What?"

"I'll give you full access. I need someone to love over the files anyways," John smirked. "Welcome to the Normandy team and Ground team, Jackie."

"Fu… Fuck you…," Jack grumbled as she walked with john and the team to the Normandy. It was time for Jack to meet the crew. Of course, Miranda wasn't happy with the outcome, first she was ranting on how Kuril and his Blue Suns betrayed them and then she complained about John giving a woman with complete and utter hatred for Cerberus full access to their files.

"You what," Miranda said outraged.

"I promised full access on the Cerberus files," John said with a shrug.

"You can't do that, it's against protocol," Miranda said.

"Since when have I ever cared about Cerberus protocol," John asked. Jack and Ragan laughed. Miranda glared at them.

"What are you looking at, bitch," Jack asked. "You think you can intimidate me?"

"On this ship you follow a military procedure, which involves obeying superior officers," Miranda said. "You are still staying on our ship after all."

"Such hypocriticy from you," Ragan said. "If I recalled from the reports from John, TIM, and Hackett, you disobeyed John's orders on Freedom's Progress. You never obeyed him, and you sure don't obey my orders."

"I see I made a new friend," Jack said. "Tell the Cheerleader to back off before I make here. I'm here, because of our deal," Jack said.

"Miranda will let you into the system. Let me know what you find," John said.

Jack smirked. "Hear that, precious? We're going to be friends. You, me, and every goddamn embarrassing little secret." Jack then looked at John. "I'll be reading in the hold, keep you people off me, better that way." Jack walks out of the debriefing room.

"Well, she's going to be fun to work with," John said with a smirk. "By the wait, if you two are going to have a catfight, we should sell tickets." Ragan nodded in agreement.

Miranda crossed her arms. "Oh shut up," she said as she left for her room.

"At least we know fun, unlike you ice bitch," Ragan yelled at her.


	83. Chapter 53: The Bitch and Beauty

Chapter 53: The Bitch and Beauty

Jack walked out of the conference room, when she got out, the room got silent with the Normandy crew staring at her. She still couldn't believe she was agree to work with the same organization that made her life a living hell. She gave a murderous glare at the crew and they quickly went back to what they were doing, trying their best not to make eye contact with the woman. They were afraid of her, good that's what Jack wanted; all her life she lived afraid she was just throwing back was life threw at her. Jack walked to the elevator satisfied, until she ran into something, data pads and books went flying everywhere, some even feel on her head. Ragan comes out and looks at Kelly Chambers.

"Chambers, what is the meaning of this? This is your workspace, you are to keep it organized. If I see one more book on Jack's head, I'm going to make you do KP duty with Gardener for the rest of the month," Ragan said firmly. Kelly quickly turns around and sees Ragan in the military position.

"Sorry sir," Kelly said then gave a sharp salute to him. "Permission to gather books and data pads."

"Granted."

Jack looked on the floor and saw a young woman with red hair on the floor rubbing her behind. She was about the same age as her; she had a petite build not all that different from hers. The woman looked at her, she didn't look dangerous, more like the girl next door; not that it mattered with Cerberus members. "Why don't you watch where the fuck you going," Jack growled.

"Jack, I suggest you keep that mouth in tone or I will be making you have a living hell," Ragan pointed at her. His eyes show no fear towards Jack, and that made Jack flinch. '_He must have been through Hell,_' Jack thought about it. "You listen to me, and listen damn good. We try to keep the professional level on this ship, so I don't want to hear any continuous cussing from you. Got it?"

"Yes sir," Jack said. She looked like she crapped her pants because all she felt like do was shaking from Ragan's words. "Sorry for that," Kelly looked at Jack and shook her head.

"Hello, you must be Jack," she took her hand and shook it much to Jack's and everyone else's surprise. "My name is Kelly Chambers, nice to meet you," she had a smile and Ragan walked out of the CIC. Jack blushed at little; she wasn't used to such a greeting and warm one at that. Her smile was warm also, not cruel, or lustful like she was used to. "Sorry I ran into you, I can be a ditz at times."

Jack pulled away her hand. "Y… yeah… well don't let it happen again." She walked away, to the elevator, still blushing. She shook her head, Kelly took her off her guard with the nice routine; she wouldn't let it happen again. The elevator stopped on Engineering Deck to go to her new room, the hold of the ship. It was full of boxes, probably full of replacement parts for the ship, to her left a counter, or shelf, large enough to her to lay on and strong enough to support her weight. Cold, dark, and out of the way, just how she liked it, she felt her eyes getting heavy and went to sleep.

**Pragia – Cerberus Project, Project: Zero – 14 years ago**

_Hell that was all she could remember… she never had a good childhood; in fact her days were filled with pain, people looking at her with hatred. Everyday life felt like a struggle, and every day she felt like ending it, it would be so easy too. Just tie the sheets around her neck and just hang herself, just spite by taking away their favorite lab rat. She moved the desk she had often used to cower from them, it would be easy to move with her biotics, she then took the sheets and tied it tightly around her neck and looped it around a rail in her room, this would be it, in a few moments she would be free. As she was about to make the ultimate decision, the door to her room suddenly opened and several armed men came in and rushed her. Pinned her against the wall, some went further than that, kicked her in the stomach, slapped, punched, calling her a stupid worthless cunt for trying to escape her hell. Then a voice, as a man in white coat ordered them to stop. One of her tormentors, who caused her such pain in the name of 'science' and 'betterment of humanity' fuck them, fuck them all…_

_"I'm afraid we can't allow you to harm yourself, Zero," the doctor said. "You're much too important to humanities future." He looked at one of the guards, maybe the leader, she couldn't tell from her vision blurring from the pain. "Prep her for the next procedure…" When she heard about more tests, the girl struggled desperately; she hated the tests, the pain, being hollow. The guards saw her struggle, trying to use her biotics to escape, one of them kicked her in the face but she blocked it and slammed the man into the wall with a shockwave. After that, she fell on the floor with both hands in front of her. Everything went black._

_When finally came to… she was once again hooked up to the machines, bound to the table like the lab rat she was, pleading not to hurt her, for mercy but behind those soulless goggles there were none, just the sadistic pleasure of seeing their results. The tests began… all she felt was pain as the electricity ran through her body. She screamed in agony, calling for the mother she never knew with tears in her eyes, and then it stopped. But she knew it wasn't the end…_

_"Please, no more… please… I'll be good… no more pain… please…" Jack chanted line mantra. "Please, no more… please… I'll be good… no more… please…"_

_"No results… doctor…," one of them said._

_"Up her dosage and then we'll start again...," the doctor said. "The Illusive Man wants results and you don't want to disappoint him."_

_After the agonizing tests, she was dropped back into her room, staring at nothing… tears welled up as she curled up and cried. She was the life as a Subject Zero…_

**NOW**

Jack instantly shot up on her 'bed' looking around, checking her body for her shackles and wires. She breathed a sigh of relief, she hadn't thought about those days in forever, before she was free, when she was weak. But then again, if she still thinking about the bad days, she was never really free. She then heard heavy set of footsteps from the stairs, she looked to the left and saw Ragan and Kelly. Kelly always had that sweet smile on her face, like everything was full of sugar and rainbows. She shook her head, she didn't understand how someone could be so damn cheerful, then again happiness was practically alien to her.

Ragan walked to the end of the room and started punching in a code. "Word to the wise, don't enter here unless you have permission to do so." He walked in the room after the door was opened.

"Hi, Jack," Kelly said. Kelly looked around her room. "You're staying in the storage area, don't you want better quarters?"

"That's what I was about to ask her," John's voice was heard. Both women jumped when they saw John on the wall while still near the stairs.

"It's dark, quiet, and out of the way, just the way I like it," Jack said. "So what the f... What are you doing here?" Kelly got out a black vest and showed it to her. "What is this?"

"It's something CXO wanted you to have, something to cover up with or you will be booted off the ship," Kelly said. "While we are in space." Jack's eyes grew wide. '_Damn, that Ragan must be a hard ass at times like this,_' she thought.

Jack soffed. "I don't need this shit…"

"He said it wasn't for the ship, he said he could care less about what you wear around the Normandy," Kelly said. "It's for missions, it operates like armor."

"So our second in command leader couldn't bother with his presence about this and went in that room while allowing you to give it to me. Nice way to say fuck you." John chuckled and walked out of the room.

"You know I can still hear you, smart ass," Ragan's voice was heard through the walls.

Kelly shook her head. "No, Ragan planned on giving it himself, but he had to make perparations for another mission. And he didn't send me, I volunteered." Jack looked at her with surprised, most of the crew looked at her with fear, for someone to volunteer to see her was different. She didn't just volunteer to see Jack, like Jack without a pistol in hand. Then she narrowed her eyes at Kelly.

"What's the catch," she asked.

Kelly tilted her head. "Excuse me," she asked.

Jack frowned and got in her face. "Don't play fucking…"

"JACK," Ragan said. Jack frowned for a few seconds.

"Don't play dumb," she growled. "I know how you Cerberus types work, everything has a catch! So what is it? Ragan needed to have someone to keep an eye on me so he can report to your boss, the Illusive Man?"

"Um, I…," Kelly said. A voice spoke up.

"She did it because she and Ragan are actually naïve enough to believe you're worth compassion." Jack glanced over to the stairs and saw Miranda with arms crossed. "Even though you deserve none… back off Jack."

Jack glared at Miranda and glowed blue. "Or what bitch?!" Ragan came out of the room and looked at them, they didn't even acknowledge him leaving the Surveillance Room.

Miranda glowed blue herself. "Or else I make you…" Jack was a little impressed, most people would not be stupid enough to pick a fight with here, but she could see that the woman before her wasn't most people. Miranda's eyes showed no hesitation, no fear, like John, she would kill and be killed if she had to, if it wasn't for the fact that she was Cerberus she would have respected her. Jack scoffed and back off, she didn't need the extra trouble. "Kelly, don't you have work to do?"

"Um, okay," Kelly said. She quickly placed Jack's vest on her bed and went back to her post, leaving Miranda and Jack glaring each other and Ragan was about to jump. Miranda then walked back up stairs and looked back.

"You're a lucky woman Jack. I don't take the threatening of my crewmates well…" Miranda said coldly. "You better be on your best behavior, lest find yourself put down like the dog you are."

"Not if I kill you first for threatening her," Ragan walked towards Miranda with a cold stare. Miranda looks at him and sees no fear in his eyes. "Both of you, stay a deck apart at all times! Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir," both women said.

Miranda laughed coldly. "I don't care what you say Ragan, but I will kill her…"

"You kill her, then I will kill you," Ragan got up to Miranda's face. "Jack is here because your boss wants her here. You kill her; that is a capital offense of Treason. Killing crew members is something you don't want to do again. I heard about Wilson, but I understand why. But you so much come next to Jack with a weapon loaded, you will be asking for a beat down until this mission is over." Ragan then shoved Miranda to the wall.

"That a threat?"

Ragan laughed coldly. "I don't make threats, Miranda. You'll know that soon enough," he walked back up the stairs and Jack and Miranda scoffed. Miranda followed Ragan while Jack walked back to her bed, where she saw the vest on the bed and threw it on the ground.


	84. Chapter 54: Geth Ambush on Haestrom

Chapter 54: Geth Ambush on Haestrom

**Kal'Reegar**

"Keelah, this is boring…," Private Ezen'Anin vas Koren complained. Reegar looked at the young soldier and shook his head. Rael's ground team was on the lookout for Geth patrols they may encounter on the planet. So far it has been quiet, but Reegar knew that could all change in a moment. "Wish we can see some action."

"No you don't trust me. A Human told me this: If you expect the expected, you will lose so you have to expect the unexpected," Reegar said. "I like the fact that this is a quiet mission for once, and you will too when you see some action. That Human told me a lot about wars that he was in and I understand why he wants peace and quiet like I do. And so I follow Ragan's example. Until I'm called to attack."

"Maybe," he said. "Still it's not all bad, getting to work with a Reegar and the hero Tali'Zorah is a once in a lifetime chance." Reegar chuckled as he saw Ezen's starry-eyed expression, he never considered himself that special, he was just a soldier doing his duty to his people. That was more than he could say for the younger brother, Prazza, who eat the fame up. And he knew that Tali felt the same way about her fame as himself. "I wonder if she's single…" Reegar shook his head, just then another one his meen ran to them, she had a worried expression on her face.

"What's wrong soldier," Reegar asked.

"Scanners picked up something, something big," she said breathlessly. "And it's coming our way."

Reegar frowned. "Ezen, looks like you're get your chance to see some action." Ezen got his gun ready for a fight. He faced the woman. "Haza, meet up Tali's security group, she's our number one priority, get her to safety!"

"Sir!"

**Tali**

"Son of a fucking bosh'tet," Tali yelled in frustration. Her teammates looked at her as she cursed loudly at the broken machine. It had been a couple of days since they landed on the small mining colony of Haestrom, and so far things haven't gone right. Their machines kept on getting overloading due to the high radiation output from the sun, making testing an exercise in patience, which Tali was losing rapidly.

"Another burn out," Ala'Rayner vas Isti said. Ala was Tali's second in command for her research team, a real laid back man. Though it could have been because he was the oldest member of her team, being he was close to being in his forties. He had been a big help in keeping this light-hearted and morale high.

Tali sighed. "Yeah… if it's not one thing, it's another," she said. "How are you coming along on the samples?"

"Slow, but making progress," he said. "Frustrating but I don't mind, not when you have a view like that." Tali look out in the horizon and instantly calm down, despite the problems it was somewhat worth seeing a view like that. She was on a planet her ancestors walked on without suits, with their faces and hair free to feel the air. She was amazed the building still stood even after three hundred years of no maintenance, a marvel of Quarian engineering and archaeology. She smiled; it gave her hope that maybe her people exile could one day end, and maybe within her lifetime so she could share it with John.

"Beautiful…," she said in awe.

A voice scoffed. "Enjoy it while you can, we'll never see it again," Tali and Ala looked back at the cynical young Quarian. Jai'Vael vas Ikotomi – cousin of Lia'Vael – the so=called realist of the group, since the beginning of the mission, he's never been real liked by the team due to his negative personality. Then again he was a member of the Ikotomi, a crew quite notorious for being professional pessimists.

Ala crossed his arms. "Don't say things like that Jai, you never know… things could change…"

Jai scoffed. "We've said and hope that for three hundred years and nothing has happened. Face it, this is the closest we'll ever get to the homeworld, and that's if the Geth don't kill us firsts. What we need is someone that can lead a group on Rannoch…" Tali lowered her head sadly, unfortunately a good part of the population of the fleet believes that the homeworld was a lost cause, there were some who even believed that their people should just give up on the homeworld and just colonized a planet where the Council has no say. "We need someone like Ragan'Shepard vas Washington."

Tali looked at him and shook her head. "Then what do you suggest we do, Jai? Cause we can't be nomads forever and Ragan can't help us all the time."

"We should look for worlds for our own, nothing's changed in three hundred years, we fight the Geth and we lose ships or people. Better to start fresh unless you can get Ragan or that Human Captain that you helped defeat Saren with."

"John'Shepard vas Normandy is dead," she lied to him. "You sound like a suit wetter," Tali said angrily. "Ragan can't help us all the time. He is part of the Alliance and he had to be transferred back to the Alliance Frigate MSSV Tokyo."

"Call me what you want, I just sick of all the death. Because we're following a lost cause," Jai went back to work. Tali was taken aback, was the homeworld a lost cause? Her father promised her a house on the homeworld when she was a child, and became distant when her mother died two years ago. Everything revolved around getting back their home and all they had to show for it was people dying, maybe the opposition was right. She then felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't mind him, he's just weary, we all are…," Ala said.

"Sure…" As they were getting back to work, a woman ran towards them, Tali recognized her, she was a member of Kal'Reegars's security squad. She looked alarmed as she met up with their group. "Haza, what's the matter?"

She took a minute to catch her breath. "Geth… large squard coming our way, Kal'Reegar ordered me to get you and your team to safety." They then heard beeping sound, the unmistakable sound of a Geth patrol. "Keelah, they're already here!" Haza got out her rifle, but before she could get out a shot, a geth fired aiming at Tali. "Watch out!" She jumped in front of Tali and was hit a few times in the chest, then dropped to the ground.

"Haza!" No response, she was dead, the geth fired on the group. "Get back! Run!" She saw her research team make a run for the facility deeper in the colony. It had little to no shade, she had hoped the sun would short them out like their equipment, unfortunately no such thing happened, as the geth weren't slowed down. The team that was guarding her took their positions and fired on the Geth. A few Geth were taken down, but more just took their place, as the Geth were taking down the security guards one by one. She looked back at the carnage before here and couldn't take it anymore and ran to help the last couple of guards left.

"Miss Zorah, what are you doing here? You should run," One of them said. There were about two left out of five.

"No one gets left," Tali said.

"But…"

"No buts, Private," Tali said. She sent out her drone, Chatika vas Paus, to attack the Geth. Chaika went to the Geth, shocking the Geth that came near the group, and for added bouns the Geth were distracted whiel the security team dragged their injured away from the battlefield. To extend that time, she also hacked the geth, the trooper fired in tandem with Chatika, creating chaos for the Geth. When they safely got away, Chatika exploded, wiping out a good fraction of the Geth. It would not put a dent in their numbers, but it allowed Tali's team to get a head start to safety.

**Kal'Reegar**

"Hole the line, these bastards are not getting through," Reegar yelled out. That battle was quickly becoming lost, not only the Geth numbers were superior, but they were also getting out gunned. A scream to the left and a Geth destroyer came over and burned three of his men alive with a flamethrower. Reegar hacked the destroyer to attack its allies, giving them breathing room.

"Sir, we got a message from Tali's group, they sealed Tali'Zorah in a bunker at the far side of the colony."

Reegar sighed a breath of relief. All was not lost, if Tali were still alive. "Best news, I heard all day…"

"Wait… crap! The Geth sent in a Colossus, it's slaughtering Tali's side, they need back up!"

"Ezen, you're in charge. I'm taking a small team to back up Zorah's group," Reegar said. He pointed at two Quarians and motioned them to take cover once they past the walkway. "Give us cover!" Ezen nodded and ordered his men to send out turrets and combat drones to cover Reegar. When it was all cleared, he gave the signal for his leader to run.

"Keelah Sa'lai…," Reegar and his team moved through the ruins, careful not to get into the sunlight. As they were getting closer to Tali's team, a couple of shots ran through several of his men, in their way were six Geth primes, reinforced by two dozen repair and strike drones.

"Bosh'tet…," Reegar growled as he headed into battle.

**Tali**

The screams were unbearable, but the Quarina couldn't do anything to help. She hadn't felt this helpless since John died two years ago. But she had to focus on the mission, the mission came first above all. For the good of all. Another impact rocked the compound as she worked to gather the data. As she worked, she muttered a little prayer…

"Ancestors, embrace those who have died in service of our people," she said. "And should the worse happen to me, please watch over John and ask him to forgive me…"


	85. Chapter 55: Warlord part 1

Chapter 55: The Warlord part 1

After finishing his rounds for today, John decided to check on Lia, one to make sure she was doing okay, after all, between a crazy biotic criminal, the bloodthirsty bounty hunter, the strict Alliance Officer and Donnelly's bad perverse jokes, the kid was likely in a perpetual state of shock and two he needed to ask a favor from her. He went down in Engineering Compartment and saw the young Quarian working closely with Gabby and Donnelly on the in's and out of the Normandy's system while Adams was listening and correcting them if they made some seem wrong."

"Oh, hi there Onii-Chan," Lia greeted. Gabby, Donnelly and Adams looked up and gave the Spectre a sharp salute. John chuckled.

"At ease you two, I'm just here to check up on Lia," John said. Ragan was right, Donnelly and Gabby will do anything to make sure that Lia is safe and doing her job correctly. "So how's everything down here?" Donnelly went on to explain that Lia's a fast learner, she took to the ships systems fast and with energy that rivaled their own. John smiled at this, Kasumi was worried that she was having trouble fitting in, looks like the thief and himself was worried about nothing.

"Is Donnelly, Ragan or Zaeed giving you any trouble?"

"Aye Commande,r why do you think I'm always causing trouble," Donnelly complained.

"Cause you make an art form out of it, Kenneth," Gabby joked. Donnelly rolled his eyes and went back to work.

"No, quite the opposite. Zaeed-san has shared stories of when he was younger, they're quiet entertaining," the Quarian said. "Ragan-san has been keeping up with things and checking in on the whole crew down here. Nice of him. Donnelly-san has been a great teacher, although I don't really get his sense of humor."

John smirked. "I doubt anyone gets Donnelly's sense of humor," he said.

"Hey, I make damn good jokes," Donnelly said. "Not my fault, people don't recognized comedy genius when they see it."

"Then why are you the only one that laughs at your jokes," Gabby asked dryly.

"Goes over their heads me thinks."

"No, it doesn't," Adams said sarcastically. Lia and Gabby laughed at that remark until Ragan came in through the opposite door.

John shook his head. "What about Jack?"

"Jack-san is quite interesting to talk to, I don't see how people are so afraid of her," she said. "I even heard Ragan and Jack in argument but each time, Jack backs off." John then thought, '_Leave it to a kid to see the good in everyone._'

"So, Lia, tell me how good are you with decontamination units," John asked.

"My family programmed lots of them back at the commune. I learned a lot from them. Why?"

"I need a unit installed in my room," John said. Lia tilted her head. "It's for my girlfriend, she's a Quarian too."

Lia's eyes lit up. "Is she from the Migrant Fleet?" John nodded. "She can teach me about Quarian culture, okay I'll do it."

"Thanks, kid," John said.

"Leave it to him to do something like that. Lia, can you send me the schematics for the decontamination units. I need them installed every room because we are picking up an old Krogan. Older than one that was on the first Normandy." John looked at him with a raised brow.

His omni-tool rang.

"What," he asked.

"Illusive Man gave us another dossier, we're to pick a Krogan scientist. I tried to send it to Ragan's omni-tool but it wouldn't go through," Miranda said.

"Because I'm not your errand boy," Ragan yelled across the room and annoyed Miranda. "If I was your errand boy, I would be taking them. But I'm not."

"Got it," John said. He looked at Lia, "Duty calls." He left engineering and went down the hold. There was Jack sitting in her usual place, her 'bed', John had a kept offering her better quaraters but she refused every time. He had heard about Miranda and Jack almost coming to blows a few days ago and it was decided that the convict would keep her distance at least until everyone was comfortable with each other. Ragan's orders, not John's. Jack looked at him, and scoffed.

"The fuck you want," she said. She covered her ears if Ragan heard it but luckily he didn't speak.

"Nice to see you too," John said sarcastically. "Suit up, you, Mordin and Garrus are coming with me."

"Whatever."

The Kodiak flew through an arch of ship debris as it land on the ground. The side hatch opened releasing John, Jack, Mordin and Garrus. The planet lots of ships, some that were thousands of years old, and it was hot, if wasn't for his armor's environmental controls he would have burned up. They rushed to cover as they heard lots of shooting, not at them but at a distance, it was a warzone and they haven't even fired the first bullet.

"Damn, must be something big," Garrus said.

"Okeer was working on genetics," Ragan's voice came over the come link. "I have pulled some earlier experiments but nothing after the year 2019. Sure he is nearly two thousand years old, but I'm shocked that Krogan would exile him over this. I can't be for certain but most of the records are blocked. Switching to gun cams and satellite feeds. If I see anything, I'll warn you."

"The dossier doesn't say if Okeer is here by choice. Assume hostiles," John said. The team moved forward. The look, fell and taste of the area were dirty. John found himself to be spitting each other minute from the grim in the air, making him wished he had helmet that covered his face. A voice was yelling orders over a speaker system; it was female and sounded very unhinged.

"There is only one measure of success kill or be killed! Perfection is your goal."

"Sounds like someone likes to hear their voice," Garrus said.

"This bitch likes the sound of her own voice. Can't wait to shut her up…," Jack said.

"Might need to find the link. So it can be blocked," Mordin said. He starts pressing on his omni-tool and shook his head. "Can't block it."

"Stay focus," John ordered. "We're here for a Krogan Scientist that is also a Warlord."

They moved forward past debris. As they reached a corner, John went into cover and saw several Blue Suns mercenaries. John signaled to Mordin to flank the mercs he then signaled to attack at Garrus. Jack pummeled them with her shockwave while Mordin fired a cryo blast at the mercs in the air. Garrus and John fired one round from their weapons at the frozen merchs. They shattered into dozens of pieces. The battle was over quickly, which was strange, John expected more mercs to come but they never came.

Jack came over the shattered remains of the mercs, Mordin just killed. "Being frozen soliden then shattered," she said. "Brutal… almost cruel."

"But they deserve it," Garrus said. "You haven't seen me pin down by three merc groups on Omega."

"They might but it is brutal… I didn't say it was cruel. I said it was almost cruel."

John raised a brow. "This coming from someone who ruptured at Turian using her biotics."

Jack looked at him. "Did you hear me, I said almost."

"Freezing is near instantaneous. Enemy is immediately kill from the shatter. No pain," Mordin sniffed. "More merciful." Garrus looked at him and shook his head.

"If the Salarains were like you, then the Krogan wouldn't have been uplifted," Garrus said. "Sounds like you know what you are doing."

"Of course I do," Mordin looked at the ice chunks. "Might need to be more descrete."

They went through the guard post and saw a merc lying on the ground. "Shit, shit, shit," he muttered. "I knew it wasn't berserkers. Not at range." He was slightly bleeding, one of the lucky ones that got away from the team's assault. The man complained about his injury, even though it was for the most part survivable.

"What a pussy…" Jack said in disdain. Ragan laughed and they heard some pounding over the comm link. John looked at his team and they all gave a curious glare at him. '_At least he is in the Observation Room,_' John thought. He could tell that the team was probably thinking the same thing.

"You're mercenaries or the Alliance. I-I'm not saying anything," the merc said with venom.

John activated his omni-tool. "I have a nice application of medi-gel to go. But… if you don't want to talk… I will just keep walking…"

"Son of… Damn it," he cursed. "Alright Jedore has had Okeer breeding her army of Korgan. But it's all messed up. The Krogan he creates are insane. We just use them for target practice."

"Guard Post, report in," his radio barked. "Jedore wants status report on that Krogan horde."

The merc glanced at his radio and then back to John wondering what to do. The Spectre grabbed him by the collar of his armor and pulled him close. His eyes narrowed which made the merc shrink under his gaze. "I want your friends gone, and I would do it quickly if I were you…"

"Uh, patrol? Last group dispersed… Lost sight five minutes ago…," he said nervously while John nodded his head.

"Dispersed," the man on the radio exclaimed. "Jedore is not going to be pleased."

"You asked for a report," the merc chided. "Dispersed."

"Alright, alright. All Units return to base."

The merc looked back to John. "Done, now for that medi-gel."

"Nah I think now, you just find yourself a nice shady spot you can sit in while you bleed out," John said with a smirk.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, the merc mumbled as he limbed away.

"Adding Insult to injury. Literally," Mordin said.

"You have to admit that was never unnecessary right," Garrus asked.

"Maybe not," John shrugged. "Felt good though." They went on their way. Penetrating the outer defenses of the Blue Sun's base was easy due to the crazed Krogan running around, by they still had to watch their backs. However the inner defenses were another matter, as they were full of feral Krogan and narrow bridges making fighting risky. Cover was hard to come by and Krogan had no need for them as they came with shotgun in tow. Having Mordin on the team was god-send as his incineration blast made the Krogan panic turns out as crazed they could still feel pain. When they were weakened enough, Jack would blow them away with a shockwave, though the Spectre could tell the woman wanted to do more.

"Hell yes," Jack said with a feral grin. Once they made it out of the corridors with the Krogan, they met with a battalion of Blue Suns. They were relentless, as they had heavies on every corner, reinforced by engineers and the shotgun wielding centurions no doubt to deal with the Krogan. However, that didn't stop the team, especially Jack who was wiping out mercs like they were nothing. She blasted the Blue Suns causing them fly everywhere, off the ledges, slammed against the wall and sometimes impalled by the beams sticking out.

The room ahead was indeed a lab… humming generators covered in rust lined the wall to the left, several computers that were obviously new, judging by their lack of wear, next to them. A few tables were strewn around the room, gutted corpses of Krogan lying atop them, obviously victims of experimentations. And at the far end… John's eyes widended. It was a large tank containing a huge Krogan, in fact it was one of the largest Krogan he had ever seen, obviously in suspended animation in the liquid within the tank. Next to it was a brown Krogan tending to a terminal.

"Okeer," John asked.

"It's about time, Human. The Batteries will not hold while you play with those idiotic mercs," Okeer said.

"So you weren't caged," John said. "But you could be more grateful."

Okeer snorted. "You may calm to help but fact you're even here is not a sign of gentle change."

John's eyes grew wide. "How did…?"

Okeer turned around and looked at them. "Surprised. All Krogan should know you, or have you forgotten what you did on Virmire." John glared at him.

"I did what had to be done," John said.

Okeer puts one hand in the air, "But I approve. Saren's horde were not true Krogan, and number mean nothing, an ousider's the same mistake these mercs have also made."

Jack scoffed. "We're here for the Collectors, not your problems."

"I see. Yes, and so Collector attacks have increased. A human concern. My request were focused elsewhere," Okeer turned around back to the console and starts typing. "I acquired the knowledge to create the one perfect soldier, with that I will inflict the greatest insult to an enemy: to be ingorned."

"Your search for the perfect soldier created a lot of failures," Okeer looked at John, "you don't care about them?"

"I failed no one, my rejects are exactly what she asked for, and she is just too weak to command. They are strong, healthy, and useless to me," Okeer said. "I need perfection, if few thousands are rejected so be it. My work will purify the Krogan. We will not be restored… we will be renewed."

"I though the Krogan wanted numbers that threaten the galaxy," John said.

"We will not need number. My soldier is a template. It is a greater threat than all the phantom siblings that would have been at his flank."

John glared at him. "You're just a cruel and manipulative bastard, just like the ones who released the genophage first."

"Perhaps, but I will restore the Krogan and my solider will be the response, not 'cure' or 'horde'," Okeer then looked at the tank and places one hand on the glass. "My legacy is perfection, they will exceed by standing on our dead. They won't forget."

"Funny, I doubt the other will see it that way," John said.

"I don't need their approval. They're time is coming to the end, anyway."

"I can't believe this… You're not but a crazy zealot, but you know how to take down a threat."

"Perhaps we can strike a deal to secure passage." Okeer takes his hand off the tank and looks at the team. He's eyes were full of hatred when he saw Mordin and Garrus. "But, know this human, my solider is not negotiable. It is the key to my legacy."

The comm opened up. "Attention, I've traced the Krogan's release – Okeer, of course," Jedore said. "I'm calling black slate on this project. Flush the tanks. Activated Protocol 10."

The pipes became to blow and air began to leak out. "She's that weak-willed? She's kill my legacy with a damned valve," Okeer said. "You want information on the Collectors? Stop her and then we'll talk."

"I've seen how you operate, you could start over like her," John said.

"No! Starting over will not duplicate it, it must survive," Okeer said.

"Then I guess we can forget about this," Garrus said. He pointed a gun at Okeer. "You are just weak-willed like Jedore. You're too prideful for you legacy." He then looked at Okeer, who was giving him a feral look. Garrus takes his gun and holsters it.

John smirked. "And now the balls in my court. Sorry doctor, but it looks like I'm holding all the cards."

"I see what you mean and I respect that. But if you want information about Collectors, kill Jedore. She will be with the rejects, go and stop here; I will do what needs to be done."

John nodded. "Legs go.


	86. Chapter 55: Warlord part 2

Chapter 55: Warlord part 2

As the team went up the stairs, they could faintly hear a woman's voice ranting, they opened the door to the next room there was Jedore, behind four birthing chambers. "I don't care who the fuck they are, I want them DEAD! This is my world! I'll poison them all," the woman went completely insane. John, Garrus, Mordin and Jack hid behind some tanks while Jedore pressed a button releasing the tank-breeds. The Krogans were relentless, flanking them while Jedore was bombarding them with missile. Luckily the Krogan weren't too smart due to just being 'born' and they were wiped out quickly. After taking out her krogans, she activated a YMIR mech that then took pot shots at them.

"Focus on the mech," John ordered. John pooped out of cover and activated his omni-tool, to overload the mech's shields. "Shit…" The mechs shields were tough and it didn't help that Jedore sometimes recharged it shields. Jack and Mordin flanked the mech while it was focusing on John, hitting the metal behemoth with shockwaves and incineration blacks while Garrus and John lay on the pressure with their assault rifles. However, Jedore was not making it easy as she continued firing on the team with her missiles. Finally getting tired of the woman's meddling, the Spectre froze her in a stasis field, letting the team focus on the YMIR.

"Shield's down," Mordin announced. Jack rushed the mech blasting it with shockwaves stunning the mech. The stasis finally broke and Jedore fell with a thud, she got up and glared at the team while gripping her weapon. Garrus quickly shot her weapon out of her hand and then proceded to kill her but before he pulled the trigger, she ducked and went to cover.

"Damn it. She is tricky," Garrus said while reloading his M-97 Mantis. "Quick but very tricky."

"I'll kill you, I'll kill you all," Jedore said becoming even more unhinged. As the team was getting ready to shut down the YMIR, she quickly got her weapon and fired her missiles at the team, but with her psychosis she was missing and hitting her army more than hurt the squad. The team went into taking pot shots at the woman, however while they were focusing on Jedore, the mech recovered with its sights on the team.

"The mech's back," Jack said.

"Not for long," John said. "Garrus, you with me. Jack and Mordin focus on Jedore." They nodded firing on Jedore while Garrus got his weapons read. As Jack and Mordin are trying to kill Jedore, she is moving cover to cover. Making her refuse to back down, John pulled out his missile launcher that attaches to the arm. Jedore moved forward firing rockets as she advanced. John started pelting the mech's head with missiles while Garrus was shooting the engine and mass effect core. Mordin used his SMG to strip away Jedore's shields when they were gone Jack lifted her with her pull, John used his warp field, causing an explosion. Jedore fell to the ground and quickly got up screaming incoherently.

John blinked. "Damn, how did she survive that? That's usually enough to take out a Krogan."

"She's nuts, crazy people can survive a lot of things," Jack explained. "I'm an example of that."

"John, if you shoot the pipes above here, that can kill here because the fall will crush her body," Ragan said over the comm link. "But be careful with that plan, if you do that then you have about five seconds to get out of there." John looked at the team and shook his head.

"Don't like his plan, scary," Mordin complained.

Garrus quickly got his sniper rifle and started shooting but a rocket flew but his weapon. "Mech coming. Must focus on it." John fired three rockets at the mech's head. The third rocket destroyed the head completely. The YMIR fell over and landed on top of Jedore's legs which made her screams echo throughout the area. It beeped widely as it approached its self-destruction.

"Ooh, that can't be good," John said with a smirk.

Jedore's eyes went wide. "No! No, no, no, no!"

"Take cover," John yelled. They took cover behind the sturdy tanks and watched the spectacle as the mech started to glow.

Jedore's eyes went wide. "Noooooooooooo!" The mech erupted in a ball of fire. The explosion rocked the area, wiping some of the tanks out, when the explosion finally ended all that was left was a charred area with a scorched remains of Jedore.

"Nighty-night, you crazy bitch…," John said. His comm beeped, it was EDI. "Got you, what is it EDI?"

"The lab alarms coincided with system failures. The remaining lab systems are unprotected and I have limited access," she started going on. "According to lab scanners, the room is flooded with toxins. Okeer's life signs are fading, and I recommend haste."

"What the hell is that Krogan doing," John asked. "We have to hurry."

They went back up to stairs only to be too late to save Okeer, as the Krogan was slumped over the termina. As they got closer, they found he left a message for John, the Spectre opened it.

"You gave me time Shepard. If I knew why Collectors wanted Humans, I would tell," the recording came up and showed Okeer on the screen. "But everything is in my prototype, my pure legacy, this one soldier, this grunt. Perfect." The screen then showed Okeer slumping over the terminal and it was off.

"The fuck? All this for just one Krogan," Jack asked as she looked at the tank that held a young Krogan. "Is it that special?"

The Salarian shook his head. "Doubt it, one Korgan would not have the impact Okeer wanted," Mordin said. "Almost certain."

"Afraid he may make your plague useless," John asked dryly. "Remind me to have Ragan teach you about history." He looked at the tank. "I guess we should bring tiny with us."

"Krogan are unstable and we have no idea how this one will react," Mordin said.

"He's right, John," Ragan said. "You and I both know what tank-bred Krogan are like. They are more unstable than anything else."

"No, but it might be fun," John said. "Shepard to Normandy. Okeer is a no-go, but we have a package for pick up. And he's a big one."

"Got it Commander," Joker said over the comm link. "ETA five minutes."

**SSV Normandy SR-2**

John made his way to the cargo bay. His debriefing with Miranda, Ragan and Jacob was interesting to say the least. Jacob didn't really know what to do about the Krogan whereas Miranda suggested leaving him in the tank and Ragan said toss the tank out the airlock on the next planet they go to. Frankly John needed all the help he can get. This may be a stupid move on his part but it may just pay off. He entered the room contain the tank.

"Anything you can tell me about him, EDI," John asked.

"The subject is stable. It is a perfect example of Krogan species. Like all Krogan he bares the genophage. If you are asking about his psychological condition then I am unable to tell you. We don't know how he would react to you or anyone else. He does have the primary, secondary and tertiary organs and nerve system. Blood rage may be high if he is released. You have been warned," EDI said.

"Get ready, I'm going to open it."

"Are you sure? We do not know about his mentality," she said slightly worried.

"He's either a powerful addition to the crew or a ticking time bomb. I'd rather get it out of the way now."

"Very well." A holo panel appeared. "The controls – and consequences – are yours."

John walked up to the panel and pressed a few buttons. The tank beeped as it started draining its fluids. The tank started elevating to a ninety degree angle. The Krogan started lowering as the fluid levels decreased. He leaned against the glass and started hit it. John took a couple steps back as the door hissed and then opened. As they got wide enough the Krogan fell to his knees and caught up a large amount of the tank's blue-clear liquid. He stepped out of the tank in a groggy manner. His eyes opened and closed sloppily. John took a couple steps forward.

The Krogan's eyes suddenly opened widely and he spotted John. He growled as he charged forward, John glowed blue to flare up his biotics but the Krogan was too fast and before he knew it he was off of his feet and slammed against the back wall. Pain shot up and down John's back as the air escaped his body. The Krogan held the Spectre to the wall with one arm to his throat; he then moved his face forward and sniffed him. Ragan came in with three armed troopers.

"Human. Male," The Krogan said. "Before you die, I need a name."

"I'm Commander John Ryu Shepard of the Normandy," John answered. Ragan quickly got his M-7 Lancer ready. "And if you know what's good for you, you'll back off."

"All men, get ready," Ragan lifted his arm. "Hold until give the signal."

"Not your name," the Korgan scolded. "Mine. I know things, but the tank… Okeer couldn't implant connection. His words are hollow." The Krogan repeated Okeer's words. "Warlord. Legacy. Grunt… Grunt," he repeated that last word with emphasis. "'Grut' was among the last. It has no meaning. It'll do." Grunt refocused on John. "I am Grunt. If you are worth of your command, prove your strength and try to destroy me."

"You wouldn't like 'Okeer' or 'Legacy'? You were designed to be the perfect after all," John said.

"Those words are big with no real meaning to me. Maybe they fit your mouth better. Grunt matches the training in my blood. I feel nothing for Okeer's clan or his enemies. Without a reason to fight that is not my own, any fight is a good as any other. Might as well start with you."

"Fire," Ragan quickly lowered his arm but the men just stood there. They were shaking in their boots. "I said 'fire'!" The armed men quickly dropped their weapons and ran out of the room. "Cowards! The lot of you!"

"Instead of fighting me, how about you join me," John asked.

"Why should I," Grunt asked.

"I have a strong crew. A strong clan. You would make it stronger," John said with a smirk.

"IF you don't then I will place this grenade in your colon and watch it implode you," Ragan said as he got a grenade ready. Grunt's eyes went wide and shook his head.

"If you lead a weak clan and fight weak enemies, I have to kill you," Grunt said coldly. He then grabbed the grenade and crushed it without thinking twice.

"My enemies have caused galaxy-wide extinction every fifty thousand years and are threatening to do it again. How's that for a worth foe," John said.

Grunt let out an amused chuckle. "It makes my blood boil for a good fight. I'll fight for you."

"Glad you saw reason, I hate cleaning up messes," John said.

"You do that again you tank-bred, I will be making you pay with blood," Ragan said before leaving the room.

"Huh." Grunt looked down and saw a pistol for his stomach. He released John and laughed again. "Offer one hand but arm the other. Wise, Shepard. If I find what I want. If I find a clan, I'll be honored to eventually pit them against you."

Later one John made a beeline for his cabin, he was really tired. He saw Lia at the corner of his room with a large cylinder device. "One more twist and there," she muttered as she was working.

"Kid," John asked.

"Oh, Onii-Chan," she said. "I'm glad you're here. I'm happy to tell you that the decontamination unit has been installed."

"Wow, you work fast kid," he said. "Thanks."

"Anything for my crew," she said. "Let me know if it needs some tweaks."

"Gotcha," John said as Lia left. He walked over to his desk and picked up the picture of him and Tali and smiled as he sat on his bed.

"Night, Rookie," he said as he turned off the lights.

**Horizon**

Meanwhile on the distant plant of Horizon, something was stirring and an old friend and a good sister was caught in the middle. "Lilith," Jane called out as she caught up with her.

"Still having trouble getting the defense towers up," Lilith asked.

"Those towers are useless without their targeting matrix working."

"Sorry, General. The comm towers are our main priority," Kaiden came up with a data pad in his right hand. "So far that is coming along very badly."

"Yeah… I'm surprised the colonists haven't tried blaming that one us," Jane said bitterly.

"It's not personal. People out here just don't like the Alliance." The area then darken, which was strange as the reports didn't say anything about clouds today. They then heard a loud hum came from the sky. Lilith and Kaiden looked up and saw a large brown cruiser fly over the colony. The colonists around the three gathered around and watched the ship. A large dark cloud came from the ship and went towards their location. Jane and Kaiden looked through their assault rifle's scopes to get a better view. The cloud was a swarm of insects. "Lilith, get everyone to the shelter immediately! We'll hold it off," Jane said.

The swarm approached them. The colonists tried to make a run for it but the swarm attacked them, stinging them which paralyzed them. Kaiden fired at the sward but there were too many of them and they were too fast. He looked over and saw Jane was like the colonists, paralyzed. One of the insects bid Kaiden on the neck; he yanked if off of himself and stared at the insect briefly before whipping it to the ground. He took a step forward before his body froze in place. Kaiden tried to move, but it was no use, all he could do was watch the colonists, he and Jane was sworn to protect, drop one by one. Kaiden looked up and saw a bug-like humanoid walk up and started to glow.

"**WE ARE THE HARBINGER OF THEIR PERFECTION,**" it said. "**PREPARE THESE HUMANS FOR ASCENSION.**" The next thing Kaiden felt was himself being dragged to god knows where…

* * *

You know what, SCREW POLLS. IF NO ONE VOTES BUT ONE PERSON then it is pointless to have them. I'm sorry but if you want to vote for my stories, you need to vote before three days that only have a one vote because if it has one vote, the poll will be closed and I will not use it. So if you want to vote, you better have it more than one vote in three days, otherwise no poll and no update for now on for the story. Polls are to help me see what you want and if you don't vote, then I think you just don't care about the story getting updated.


	87. Chapter 56: Horizon part 1

Chapter 56: Horizon part 1

The com opened up. "The Illusive Man and Admiral Hackett with General Hamauzu would like to see you, John and Ragan," Kelly's voice is heard. Ragan and John look at each other and shake their heads. "I repeat, the Illusive Man, Admiral Hackett and General Hamauzu would like to see you."

John and Ragan groaned and stirred out of the mess hall. "Got it Kelly," Ragan said as he fell down on the ground with a loud thud. John looked at him and chuckled. "Don't even." Ragan rolled himself up from the floor and got his water from the table they were sitting at with Garrus and Kasumi. Gardner was having a smirk on his face when he saw Ragan get up with a moan.

"I should have warned you about that," Gardner said. "Floor is slippery because of someone vomited on the floor."

John and Ragan looked at them and walked towards the elevator. Since the old Normandy was destroyed, they didn't have stairs in the new Normandy from deck 2 to deck 3. And the Captain Quarters was at deck 1. As Ragan yawned and stretched, the conference table went down and the room went dark as the holographic of TIM appeared before them smoking his cigarette. Hackett and Hamauzu shook their heads when they saw TIM smoking.

"Shepard," TIM said.

Ragan crossed his arms as he yawned again. "This better be good, I was in the middle of some good sleep." The Illusive Man pressed a few buttons and an image of green verdant world appeared. "Is that Horizon?"

"Correct Ragan, we have them. Horizon, out of our colonies in the Terminus, has just gone dark," Hackett said. "It isn't under attack, it soon will be."

"Mordin finished the countermeasures a few days ago, though he's still testing it," John said. "I'm sure that a field test would do better."

TIM gave a smirk, "I would say that is the best way to find out. The test phase is officially done."

"We'll be there soon," John turned to walk away.

"Wait, there is something else you should know," Hamauzu said. "Kaiden Alenko, you former crewmember, and Jane Shepard, you sister is down there also." John looked back at him.

"What are they doing in the Terminus Systems, they're Alliance. Alliance has no jurisdiction in the Terminus, just like the Council unless it is a war," Ragan said. John looked at him with a murder glare but understood that he was right. Alliance and Council are not allowed to enter there because the Terminus Systems is all a lawless zone with the Vorcha, Quarians, Geth, and now the Batarians.

"Officially, they are part of an outreach program, a show of 'goodwill' between the Alliance and the Human colonies," Hackett said.

"This can't be a coincidence, my crewmate just happens to be there, when they attack," John said.

"I don't believe in coincidence, they must be using him to get to you," TIM said. Hackett nodded in agreement.

John clenched his fist when he heard that, Jane and Kaiden in trouble is one thing he hated to ear. "Well, they got me," he growled. "No one threatens my friends and family and live to tell the tale."

"I know you're angry, but don't let personal feelings get in the way of your mission," Hackett said.

"How about you worry about the Collectors and I worry about my crew, huh? Anything else you can tell us?"

"Around five hours ago, communications were down. I had my team that is in the system find out what happened," Hamauzu placed his hand on his brown beard. "Communications were not only down but blocked. Most of the systems are also down. The colonists have some new technology defense towers but they shot at my team when they got too close. Friendly fire or the Collectors are using the towers to gain advantage. Also, the Collectors have installed EMPs so your weapons will be find until…," a scientist came up to Hamauzu's hologram and whispered in his ear. "I see. Damn it." The scientist leave the hologram and Hamauzu looks back at them. "I'm sorry to say but they have technology that will cancel heat. Meaning thermal clips are out of the picture." TIM and Hackett grew wide eyed. "So that means, you have to with stealth or weapons from the 21st century."

"That bad, great. Time to get my Colt Anaconda ready," Ragan said. "I'll see if I can find some more of those weapons that TIM – the Illusive Man, god I hate saying that – has brought on the Normandy."

Hackett and Hamauzu looked at TIM, who looked at Ragan before communication was shut down. "Joker, get us to Horizon."

"Aye, aye, sir. ETA in three hours," Joker said.

The shuttle landed on a small clearing just outside of the colony, the team came out careful not to attract any attention from any Collectors that might be in the area. Once outside, the shuttle door closed and left them, they were on their own now. John looked around the colony, a few prefabs and farming equipment, the Spectre guessed that before the Collectors attacked Horizon was quiet and peace colony like Eden Prime. "This is bad," Garrus said while pointing at the sky. John, Ragan and Grunt looked up and saw the Collector Ship; it was huge, especially if it could be seen from this far out of the colony.

"Collectors attack and take the species up there. Scary as fuck," Ragan said while aiming his sights down to make sure nothing was coming.

"No kidding," John said. "Mordin, will these countermeasures work?"

"Should work… in theory," Mordin replied over the radio. Grunt and Garrus had a bad feeling of that 'in theory' statement. Ragan grew wide eyed and shook the thought away.

"In theory," Garrus asked.

"Only true test is a field test. Exhilarating to test it firsthand," Mordin was crazy when it came to something like this. But it was for a good cause.

"Glad to be your lab rats," John said sarcastically.

"Don't try to experiment on me if this goes FUBAR. I don't want my corpse being tea bagged by some crazy Salarian," Ragan lowered his Colt Anaconda. "I seen what Salarians do to dead people." John, Garrus, and Grunt laughed him.

"Not going to do that. Tea bagging, gross, weird, not allowed in my lab," Mordin yelled out. Ragan was having a big smile on his face. '_He just learned his fight or flight instincts like a Marine,_' Ragan thought.

Ragan quickly took a big box that he hid under his trench-coat and opened the case. "Here, grab two weapons and move out. Reload is different but it's very easy." The case had old fashion weapons like Winchester 1891, Thompson 1911A1, Walther 2000 Custom, and five pistols and one shotgun. Garrus took the Thompson and a Beretta 92 FS while Grunt took the AA-12 and Arcus 94. John took the Winchester and the Walther. Ragan took the two AMT Hardballers. "Okay that leave one pistol."

The team reached the first clearing. There were several trucks with assorted cargo. A buzzing noise filled the area and from over the hills to the right several Collectors flew in, each armed with organic assault rifles. The Collectors looked like a humanoid beetle; each Collector that appeared seemed to be little more than a drone with no distinctions between individuals, although there was that towered their own brethren by a significant margin. Their vocal communication seemed mostly consisted of insectoid chirps and trills. As soon as the Collects landed, they opened fire on the team's position.

"They fly," Grunt asked. "Now it gets fun."

"Take cover," John ordered. Ragan and Garrus dived into cover while Grunt and John was running towards cover. After John got in cover, he peaked around his cover and threw a warp at one of the Collectors. It drained its barrier. Grunt fired at an explosive crate, launching them all in the air. Some of the Collectors raised a golden barrier similar to the Geth's hex barrier to protect themselves from the team fire.

"Mordin, you seeing this," Ragan asked adjusting the camera in his helmet. He took off his coat and threw it in the air so the Collectors can shoot it and make them open for Garrus to cut them down with the assault rifle.

"Yes, as interesting, anti-ballistic barriers," Mordin commented. "Blocks every attack except for heavy force." Ragan smirked and John ordered Garrus and Grunt to hit the barrier with concussive shots. The barrier broke and John gunned the remaing collectors down, after the battle was done John went to check the corpse.

"Impressive," Mordin said.

"Exoskeleton. Very tough, durable. Same as a hardsuit. Maybe better. After we repeal Collects, we should take several bodies back for an autopsy. Could give us an insight to new armor upgrades and also to see if there is a way to counter their armor," John looked at Ragan and shook his head. "What?"

"Okay, creepy, but useful," Garrus said.

"Come on, we need to keep moving unless you," John points at Ragan, "have something else to say." Ragan took his hand and acted like he was locking his mouth. They moved forward into more Collectors and husks. When they made it to the next clearing was secured Mordin made an observation.

"Hmm. Husk used by Sovereign…" The husk looked different; they were much broader than the husks from two years ago. The cybernetics no longer glowed and the entry port from the dragon teeth was more pronounced which meant they came with the Collectors.

"No," John said. "The Geth impaled their husks on dragon teeth. We haven't seen any since we got here. The Collectors must have brought them here." John crouched down to get a closer look. He then took his hand and placed it on the husk's chest and turned a circular device out of the chest. "These husks are different from what we faced during the mission against Saren. More evolved. While these husks don't have the electro-magnetic pulse of Saren's husk, these husks are more durable and stronger. And this must be the way they keep the energy from falling out of them."

"They still die when you shoot them," Grunt commented.

"Damn, then the Illusive Man was right," Garrus said. "Collectors are working for the Reapers. Guess the Alliance owes him a cookie."

"Keep moving," John motioned towards the gate, where they saw a disturbing sight. "Oh no…" He saw children, a kindergarten class. Two women, one sporting grey hair and another younger with raven black hair on either end of the group, both with faces twisted into horrified screams as they tried to shoo their chargers forward… Charges that could be no more than four years old, their tiny faces twisted into grins of what would have been crying… if they had even gotten that far. Their little legs frozen in a stumbling attempt to leave a fruitless attempt.

"Colonists kept in stasis yet are completely aware," Mordin said.

"Damn, I wonder if Kasumi would like this for her job. This kind of tech and help her on missions," Ragan said with confused looked. "So now we have some more viewing on this so-called seeker swarm."

John found his hands tightening on his weapon and closed his eyes, the sight of this struck too close to home. What he saw reminded John of Mindoir, and the screams of terror that filled the air when he was a kid. At least back then, the captured has a chance of fighting back against the Batarians, but here… there was no chance, they were completely at the mercy of the Collectors and the scary part, they didn't even know. "Come on, we're not letting the husks take anymore colonists," John was angered about this sight. Ragan understood the pain.

The next area was filled with several pre-fab homes. There were a dozen stasis containers near the wall. The licking and chirping of the Collectors could be heard by John's team. They moved as one. They opened fire on any Collector and then took cover just long enough to reload. They repeated this process until the area was quiet once again. Around the next pre-fab until they found more people in stasis. "Don't worry; it'll all be over soon," Ragan said.

Ahead of them was an organic looking weapon lying against a crate in the back alley of the pre-fab units. John picked it up and quickly put the trigger at open automatic. A yellow particle beam erupted from the end, putting a hole into one of the buildings. John quickly releases the trigger, his com then roared in his ears causing him to hold his head in pain.

"Incredible," Mordin gasped in awe. "Miniaturized particle beam! Best scientists in the galaxy still unable to create a large-scale model. Too high power requirement. Need dreadnought standard fusion plant for something of this scale, or something that works like a fusion plant. Must have it!"

John rubbed his hear. "And you'll have it, just warn me next time when you start geeking out like that." Ragan and Garrus laughed. This was the first time John got on to Mordin for something like this.

"Yes, apologies," Mordin said. The team went in the next area, it was an open area full of pre-fabs and buildings perfect for an ambush. The tell-tale sound of wings buzzing notified them of the Collectors approach. One of the Collectors started glowing yellow as it landed, its skin cracked and it lifted off the ground by a couple of feet and a small burst of energy came from it. The glowing Collector looked at them team.

"**I AM ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL OF THIS FORM,**" the voice boomed. The Collectors fired on the team and they went to cover, the Collector guardian set up its barrier. As it turned out, the Collector Gun they found earlier was a God-send as it tore through the barrier like it was nothing, and killing several Collectors in the process. While the other Collectors were easy to dispatch, especially with the gas tanks lying around, this glowing Collector was absorbing their fire. It advanced and attempt to engage John at point-blank range. It possessed an extremely powerful and unknown biotic attack that could penetrate cover, making the Spectre stagger back. Grunt and Garrus fired at the Collector but it just ignored him and continued to focus on John. Ragan quickly got under a grate and moved towards its position but the Collector took a hand and melted the metal to the ground.

"This thing is harder to kill than the others," Garrus said. "Damn it, we just lost Ragan. He's under the grates and can't get out."

"A worthy opponent," Grunt said grinning. "I will savor this." John gathered a warp in his hand and threw it at the oncoming Collector. The force of impact cause it to stumble back a bit and a bit of its armor started to fall off.

"Garrus, armor-piercing ammo, Grunt incendiary ammo now." The two nodded and switched ammo. As they opened fired, more and more of the Collector's armor fell. John finished it with a coup de gráce a warp field, it dissolved into ash soon afterwards. Ragan then busted through the grates with a powerful kick, making metal fly everywhere. They then heard another booming voice.

"**I AM THE HARBINGER OF YOUR PERFECTION**."

"Shit," John cursed. "Another one!"

"**SHEPARD…**," the way the Collector growled his name was nothing less than pure hatred. As he fought them, the memories of his battle with Saren/Sovereign came flooding back…

**Two Years ago – Citadel – Council Chambers**

_"__**I AM SOVEREIGN AND THIS STATION IS MINE**__," the abomination once known as Saren attacked._

_"Well, shit," John could say as the team fired at Soveriegn, but its rapid jumps made it impossible to get a proper aim at him. Ragan then decided jump on the walls and starts jumping towares the machine. But that ended when Sovereign shot a biotic charge at him. Hitting Ragan so hard, that he flew into the wall, cracking it so badly that the place was rumbling. Biotics helped a little but Sovereign's own mass effect field, broke it out. Sovereign latched onto the wall and rapidly fired red bullets everywhere making cover all but useless. Ragan gets out of the wall, and jumps towards it but this time he evades the bullets and throws an arc grenade at Sovereign, crippling it to fall down on the ground but that didn't last long because it jumped back onto the wall and start stacking Ragan in hand to hand combat._

_John threw a couple of grenades at Sovereign, causing multiple explosions after Ragan jumps off the wall, but it didn't slow down the Turian husk as latched to the floor next to the team. It moved slowly, never taking its soulless eyes off the team, it moved like a predator stalking its prey. The team moved also never talking their eyes off Sovereign. Suddenly, John and Kaiden blasted Sovereign with a warp field while Tali were trying to overload its shields and Ragan was using his pistol to stun it. Sovereign jumped and blasted a stream of red energy, separating John from the rest of the team. With the Spectre alone, the husk pursued him, practically ignoring Tali, Ragan and Kaiden. John moved to get some breathing room, and Tali and Kaiden shot the husk trying to get its attention but Sovereign was relentless in its pursuit blasting John._

_"Cover me," Ragan quickly jumps over Sovereign and starts attacking with his omni-blade._

_A few of the blasts missed as Ragan bobbed and weaved, however John got careless and hit wall as Sovereign fired off multiple shots after throwing Ragan to the wall and turned its attention back to John. John raised his barrier as several of his red fireballs hit the Spectre. But the force was too much, shattering his barriers and some of the bullets hit him square in the chest. John was thrown back and hit the wall hard. He shouted in agony clutching his chest, it was like he was melting from the inside out._

_"JOHN," Kaiden and Tali said coming to his side. Ragan quickly recovers and slams the Turian husk to the wall._

_Sovereign prowled around John like a predator almost like it was taunting him, the Spectre wasn't surprised he was completely at the husk's mercy. Ragan was nearly killed by an impaled to the lugs that were burnt, but he got up from the ground and charged at it. The husk quickly does a swift kick but Ragan blocks it and does a crown attack on the head. Tali and Kaiden fired at it, but at this point they were like mosquito bites as Sovereign just fired a red bullet to keep the Human and Quarian from pestering it. Sovereign looked at Ragan and lunged at him. This was it, he was going to die._

_"RAGAN," Tali scream. Then a miracle happened, Sovereign dropped to the ground, glowing red, howling in pain. John was confused at first, but then looked out of the window and saw the Normandy and other ships swarming the Reaper. Sovereign couldn't protect itself and possess Saren's body at the same time; it was putting a strain on the Reaper._

_"Ragan, attack it," John ordered. Ragan ran up to the husk and started punching and kicking it. "It's losing it… now's our chance… Kill Sovereign." Ragan then stops for a while and pulls out a grenade and throws it at the husk. John shakily raised his hand and caught the husk in a singularity field after being blasted by a shotgun, which made the husk fly to the other side. He lifted it above the ground and held it there. Immediately, Kaiden and Tali raised their guns and fired until their guns overheated. Ragan then went up to it and started attacking the husk with his sword. Feeling its victory slipping away, Sovereign grew desperate and charged energy preparing to fire at Ragan and John pointblank, if it was going to die he was going to take the Spectres with it. With Ragan still in pain, he couldn't move that much and quick enough. 'Shit,' he thought._

_"Ragan," Kaidne thought fast and engulfed the husk in a biotic field that started to eat away at the husk. Tali came in close with her shotgun and blasted it until it overheated. Ragan then took his sword and throws it at the husk's chest, impaling the heart with three blades that came out of the handle._

_"Get away from him," Tali growled, Sovereign growled angrily and swung at the Quarian but Ragan grabs the arm and breaks it off. "Thanks." Ragan nodded and then took the sword out of the chest and started doing a fast beat-down on it._

_John glowed blue and hit Sovereign with the strongest biotic field he could muster, blowing it back on the grass. Sovereign, then started to screech an inhuman screech until it was laying on the ground, twitching only slightly. Suddenly, the red energy that so far had been held inside it engulfed it turning into a bring blaze. Finally the screeches stopped and the blaze stopped only leaving ashes behind._

**NOW**

The memory ran through his head just to make the fact clear. This was a Reaper possession, this was what the Reapers were capable of. The power to end civilizations on a whim, he was fighting for the future. "**PRESERVE JOHN'S BODY IF POSSIBLE.**"

"Fuck you," John growled. "Eliminate the drones first!" Clearing the area of the half dozen drones proved rather difficult with Harbinger's charged warp attacks. His other attack consisted of a slow-moving energy that was easy to move out of the way of. After a small amount of time they eliminated the drones and focused on Harbinger. Harbinger still twitched. John cautiously walked up to it and looked down aiming with his pistol.

"**YOU WILL FAIL, JOHN RYU SHEPARD,**" its voice boomed. "**KILL THIS ONE AND A HUNDRED WILL REPLACE IT.**" John pulled the trigger sending a round through its head.

"Garrus, get that garage door open," Ragan ordered.

"Got it, second boss," Garrus ran over to the holographic display and activated his omni-tool. A few seconds passed when he announced, "And… done!" The door opened up. The team went inside only to hear a click of gun and cold metal was held against John's head. Without thinking, John grabbed the gun and flipped the unknown assailant to the floor and into the light. John, Ragan and Garrus' eyes went wide.

"Kaiden," John asked. He blinked and got off the floor.

His eyes went wide. "John? Garrus? Ragan?"


	88. Chapter 56: Horizon part 2

Chapter 56: Horizon part 2

Kaiden just stood there for a moment unresponsive, the shock of seeing his best friend alive hadn't worn off yet. John rubbed his head sheepishly. "Well this is… awkward," John said. Kaiden came up to him and punched him hard in the face, causing the Spectre to fall on his ass and Ragan to grab his sword. John quickly puts his hand up and Ragan took his hand off the sword handle. "Don't Naked Eye," John never used Ragan's name in translation to English. "Ouch, what the hell!?"

"'What the hell!?' You're alive, you didn't try to contact me and plus I have to hear from Anderson, that you're with Cerberus operatives looking into this matter, so I should be saying that," Kaiden said angrily.

"I'm not with them if you are jumping to conclusions…"

"I wasn't," Kaiden finally calm down. "I know the truce about Alliance, Council, and Cerberus." He looks at Ragan. "It was thanks to him," pointing at Ragan, "that I got into this mission. He left the Spectres and Anderson got me here. Anderson also gave us reports."

"Reports? Us," Garrus asked. "What reports and who is us?"

"There were rumors that not only that John was alive but that Cerberus was the ones that may have put a control chip in him. Like I said, I was sent by Anderson to see if the rumors were true but then I heard you came to visit him and he confirmed it that no control chip. Also that someone was attacking the colonies and I don't know who or what they are. So explain, I'm all ears."

Ragan then looked at Kaiden and cleared his throat. "There were rumors of those bug things called the Collectors attacking the colonies. Not sure why. All we know that they are very close of working with the Reapers." Kaiden grew wide eyed, this meant something else is not right. "Cerberus reported the missing colonies about two years ago. Before John's 'death' – which is an understatement because they found his body still intact."

"I was gone for two years," John stopped Ragan from talking. "I was in a coma while Cerberus and some Alliance officials rebuilt my brain and muscle mass, I didn't even have a choice."

"I don't get it, you killed a lot of Cerberus operatives two years ago, why spend all that time rebuilding an enemy," Kaiden was confused.

"Because of the Collectors, like Ragan said," Garrus commented. His turn to put something into this. "They think they're tied to the Reapers but not sure how."

"So the reports are right. Those bug things that took the colonists and Jane are Collectors. You mean those things with the swarm that paralyzed me? They're working for the Reapers but no idea how?"

John and Ragan looked at Kaiden. "Where is she?" Kaiden was struck back when he heard both of them.

"I don't know. She is probably with on that ship," Kaiden then looks down at the floor. "She might be dead because of my fault."

"It's not your fault. You didn't have the countermeasures for the seeker swarms," Ragan said. "I'm sure that she is alright. You were paralyzed? Are you okay? How did you get out? We need to know if we are going to help the other colonists."

Kaiden sighed. "It's a long story…"

**Hours before meeting Shepard and team – Horizon**

_After finally stopping, the creatures threw Kaiden into a pod, the biotic had never been this scared before in his life, not even the final battle with Sovereign scared him this much, at least then he was able to defend himself. As the creatures was about to seal the pod, but a scream was heard, someone must had been freed if they were able to scream. The insect-like creature paused and then walked over to a girl that was cowering in a corner; she looked no older than nine or ten. She cried and begged for mercy, but the creatures wouldn't listen to her pleas as they gathered around her, weapons drawn. Kaiden's blood went cold._

_'No… nononononono… NO,' was all he could think as he watched the girl get vaporized. The agonizing death scream of the little girl made him furious. Not just furious, it made his migraines headaches act up. The headache grew stronger and stronger until a biotic pulse came from him. The sides of the pod blew apart and his stasis ended. As Kaiden got out of the pod he saw some of the creatures unfroze some of the colonists and impaled them on Dragon's Teeth. Kaiden glowed blue and launched a throw pulse as hard as he could at the Collector guard. The aliens crashed into the wall with a loud snap. The others took notice and fired on the biotic, Kaiden raised his barrier and deflected the bullets and he then raised his arm and blew them away with a biotic wave. His head hurt like hell, but he didn't care, he was pissed beyond reasoning, he gazed at the dragon's teeth going down and destroyed it without second thought, it was better for these people to die than to live as abominations. Once the migraines settled, Kaiden tried to free the others colonists, but to no avail, he couldn't read heads or tails of the system they were using. With that plan as a bust, he needed to find a way to kick the creaturs off the colony and come back for the people._

_"The defense towers," he gasped._

_That was his though now. If he could get those defense towers up, he might be able to repeal them. Kaiden picked up one of their strange assault rifles that was next to the now ruined dragon's teeth and made a dash for the control station. He saw some Collectors fly overhead, completely ignoring him. Kaiden wondered what has them so distracted, but welcomed it as his path to the control station was unattended. As he entered, he saw people who had escape the swarm._

**NOW**

"That's the story, I couldn't leave them here so the defense towers had to wait," Kaiden said. "Though more people may have suffer under my decision… like Jane."

"You did the right thing," John said.

"I didn't. I left your sister to die, in the hand of the Collectors. What if my sister was still there and you escaped, what then."

"I would be doing the right thing. Getting this people out of here," John then heard the door open and quickly turned around. With a gun pointed at him, he looked at the person and saw it was Jane. "Jane?"

"Is that you, John," she asked him. She was looking at him from head to toe making sure that it was him. He looked like her brother two years ago. "It can't be. How do I know it is you?"

"Ask me anything," John said.

"What is my full name?"

"Janus Kasumi Shepard."

Jane was shocked by this. It was not only her brother but it was someone that would only say her name to verify themselves. She then lowers her gun and starts crying for joy. To her it was the first time to see a family member be right in front of her that was back from a coma for two years. "It is you." She quickly grabs him by the midsection and hugs him. "I thought you were dead."

Garrus spoke up, "If we reach those defense towers, we could get them activated. Maybe it can repel the Collectors' ship."

"The targeting systems are not working," Jane broke the hug and looked at them. "The colonist tried to fix it but the targeting matrix is not calabrated correctly in the system. It is more advanced because it is an anti-Dreadnought GARDIAN weapon version 5X-3."

"Looks like it'll be up to EDI," John said.

"EDI," Kaiden asked. "Who's that?"

John rubbed his head. "She's an AI/VI for the new Normandy."

Kaiden and Jane's eyes went wide. "The Normandy's back," they both asked. "Wait AI/VI?"

Ragan chuckled. "Yeah, illegal for the ship to have an AI so they had to make it an AI/VI which didn't break the laws because of the shackles on it. I don't trust it," Ragan said bluntly. "Cerberus made the new Normandy with extra decks. Instead of three decks, it is five. Alliance is working on the third version to have seven decks." Ragan then looked at the door and saw the light blinking from red to green. "But right now we have to kick the Collectors off this planet." John was glad that Ragan was using his mind. The team walked away.

"Wait," Kaiden said. "I'm coming with you."

"Same here," Jane said.

"You both don't have to," John said. "What about these people?"

"If they keep the door shut and locked they'll be fine," Kaiden said. "Besides, I want to."

"They won't be fine. The control panel was blinking red to green. There must be some…" Ragan stopped talking and headed to a weapon's locker. As he is looking for something, Jane and Kaiden look at him with wide eyes.

"Okay, need some…," Kaiden asked.

"Bingo," Ragan got down looking and lifted some miniature bombs. "M-54 Fragments. Place them near the doors about a meter away and arm them. The colonist will be okay them." Ragan walks out of the building, they start hearing bombs being armed.

John smirked, "Okay."

The team exited the garage. The area had some construction equipment. John activated his comm. "Shepard to Normandy SR-2, do you read?"

"Read you Staff Commander," Joker said.

"We're heading to the defense towers of the colony. Meet us there."

"See you there," Joker said before cutting the comm.

Kaiden looked at him. "Joker is with you too," he asked shocked. Just how many of his old friends are with John and Ragan. John shook his head.

"He did it for my sake," he said sadly.

"I see…," Kaiden said. "Sorry."

John could hear more of the Collectors clicking. The squad stacked up against the wall. John peaked around the corner to see two Collectors standing next to each other. John and Kaiden rolled ran out of cover and threw a ball of warp at the Collector on the left. Grunt and Garrus used their concussive shot on the one on the right. Several more Collectors flew into the area. The moans of half a dozen husks echoes throughout the area, along with the man of something bigger. A larger creature walked out from around the building. It resembled a husk with a large cannon strapped – or rather fused – to its back.

"What is that thing," Kaiden asked out loud.

"Two husks genetically fused to become stronger. Disgusting yet intriguing and effective," Mordin said over the comm link.

"Who is that," Kaiden asked.

"Mordin Solus, Chief Scientist for the Normandy. Pleasure," he greeted. "John, analyzed several weak points, head, hump, and a blue entry point on their back. Suggest hitting it."

"Unload on it," John ordered. Ragan quickly grabs his ATM Hardballers and starts shooting at each part of the leg until it falls down. Kaiden and John used warp while Grunt and Garrus was on gun support while Ragan is reloading. But it got back up. It turned its attention to them. It fired several shots towards them. The blasts went in a line similar to a biotic shockwave attack. The squad took cover. The creature was harder to kill than the possessed Collectors. It had a tick hid that took continuous bombardment of their firearms, incendiary attacks and warps. Eventually the creature fell to their attacks. The remaining few Collectors posed a lesser threat than their husk artillery cannon.

Kaiden approached the door in the back of the area and begun hacking. The door were no match for the biotic's. It opened to reveal a field covered with crates and the control station in the center. They approached but heard the same groan of the husk artillery. Two of the abominations walked out from behind the control station.

"Grunt, you have the Cain," Ragan asked.

Grunt unloaded the yellow cannon and handed it to Ragan. "Of course," he said with a smirk.

There was enough power for two shots. This was a good time for it. Everyone take cover!" They didn't need to be told twice. Ragan pulled down on the trigger and listen to the weapon beep rapidly. It squealed before firing its twenty-five gram slug. The explosion rocked the ground around them, causing them to fall back. When the dust settled the two scions and husks that were moving towards them was gone and all that was lift was some ruined boxes and a large crater.

"Whoa, cuz," Jane yelled. "Overkill, don't you think?"

John smirked. "No kill like it." The turian went straight to work. "Garrus, see what is wrong."

"I got through the systems, boss but the targeting matrix is messed up beyond repair."

"EDI, can you do something about these defense towers," John asked over the comm.

"I can sync the colony's targeting system to the Normandy, but it will take time for the towers to warm-up," EDI was bearing the bad news.

"Get to it."

"Starting, but I will not be able to mask the tower's power-up sequence. The Collectors will try to stop you."

"So the Collectors will come in force," Grunt concluded. "Good."

John sighed. "Any other helpful tips?"

"Just one," EDI replied. "Enemies incoming."

"Defensive position, now," John ordered. The team went to cover as they heard the buzzing and moans of Collector and husk hordes. The first one to appear was a bright red husk running at them, grunt pushed it back with a concussive blast and it when the regular husks ran past it, the red one exploded taking its friends with it. One of the collectors started to glow and started firing its biotic blast. Kaiden used his reave to drain the possessed husk's barrier while John blasted its armor with his warp field. Garrus, Jane, Grunt and Ragan gunned down the rest of the Collectors and husks, and then silence, no more enemies came at them. Ragan quickly jumps off the ground and starts climbing on top of the nearest building to get a better view.

Grunt snorted. "Bah, cowards, I want more fighting."

"I think you might have that wish Grunt, look," Ragan yelled. The team turned to their right and saw a husk that looked like a flying crab. It flew very slowly until, it started to glow and fired at the team scattering them. The husk then began its pursuit of John, ignoring the rest of the team, big mistake as it took fire from the others. However it didn't go down eays as it dropped to the ground and wailed blowing back the team and summoning a barrier. John pulled out the particle beam and drained its barriers while dodging its fire. Ragan quickly threw some wrap grenades but did little damage to the barriers. Garrus, Kaiden, and Grunt took care of its armor, after a while it screeched in pain and then dissolved into nothingness.

After fighting a horde of Collectors and husks, the defense towers roared to life and started firing at the Collector ship. The blast from the defense towers appeared to be doing some damage to the Collector vessel. Some of the plates on the side of the ship shifted and its engine roared to life.

"Shit its engines are starting up," John said. The collector ship roared and left the planet.

"No…," Kaiden said. "They have half the colony in there."

John dropped to the ground and punched it. "Shit, shit! I didn't want it to end like this." Remorse was in his voice.

"You did the best you could, John," Jane said. "Better than the other colonies were. Gone all the way."

"Do you think I don't know that? I was at Freedom's Progress after the colony was attacked," John said with anger. His face turned red and the scaring was getting worse. Jane and Kaiden took a step back when they saw some blood coming out of his face. "Not good enough." John got up from the ground and dust himself off.

Kaiden sighed. "Then we have work to do," he said. The team looked at him. Comes off the building and looks at him.

"You mean…," Garrus asked.

"I'm coming with you," Kaiden said.

"But…"

"No buts. Those things are after humans, which means everyone that is in the Alliance is in trouble too. Besides, it might be fun to break the rules, at least once."

Jane then sees Ragan placing his guns away and then looks at the area where the Collectors were at. "Can't be that hard for that. We need to do something. Right, Spectre."

"I'm not a Spectre," Ragan said.

"Well can't exactly say no to that."

John put his hands on Kaiden and Jane's shoulders. "Good to have you back. Both of you."

"Glade to be back," Jane said.

Back on the Normandy, John gave Kaiden and Jane a tour. Kaiden was impressed at the layout of the ship, though he was a little worried how a terrorist organization was able to recreate something at top-secret as the first Normandy without anyone knowing. Not only that, he was worried about the AI/VI in the ship but John assured him he could trust her. As for the Cerberus personnel walking around the ship, they didn't look like terrorists, but looks could be deceiving. "And this is your room," John said. "Jane you get to stay in our new family member's room. You'll see her on the starboard lounge."

"I have to say, Cerberus knows their stuff, now if only they could use it for good," Jane said. "Now you have to introduce me to that hottie in the Armory."

John chuckled. "Sorry, don't think Miranda would like you hitting on Jacob, Jane."

"Damn, oh well, there a plenty of cute guys on this ship if they are in Alliance colors," Jane said while making Kaiden laugh.

John shook his head. "Now if you excuse me, I want to know about that report."

"Let me come with you," Kaiden said. "I need answers too."

"Same here," Jane was the last one that had that on her mind but this was important.

The three went to the comm room and met with Ragan, Hackett and TIM. "Good work on Horizon, John. Now maybe the collectors will think twice before attacking us," TIM said.

"It's not a victory, they got away with half of the colony," Ragan said with venom. He knew something was wrong.

"Better than all of it," Hackett said. He then noticed Jane and Kaiden. "Welcome Commander Alenko and General Shepard, I have to say I'm a little surprised you decided to come on the Normandy."

"I'm doing this for John's sake; I still think that," Kaiden looks at the Illusive Man, "are nothing but terrorist trash."

"I'm doing this because I have nothing else to do for the Alliance.

"Yes, it is good that you joined," TIM then looked at Ragan. "You need to brief me about…"

"Brief this, you set us up. Hackett did this to monitor us because of a rogue splitter cell story," Ragan was pissed. "You want to say something about being briefed, next time hide your channels better than stage five protocols when I can hack into it, next time get a stage X-13 protocol. You use John's name for this by telling everyone that he was joining Cerberus and that he quit the Alliance." John quickly looked at TIM.

"You son of a bitch," John said. "Next time you do something like that, both of you, I will make your lives a living Hell."

"A calculated risk, I suspected the Collectors were after you or anyone connected to you and now I know," TIM said before taking a sip of his drink.

"Bastard, that choice has gotten half the colony captured," Kaiden said angrily.

"You call yourself a defender of Humanity, of Humans, but what the hell are you? This was not Human… you do not deserve the title," Jane narrowed her eyes.

"I did what had to," TIM said unfazed. "I won't sit around while the Reapers and collectors gather strength."

"You will never do this again, do you understand me," John asked.

"Commander, we have will make sure it won't happen again. We tried to keep it in the small truce but somehow, someone got it out to the public," Hackett said. "The council knew but they didn't want to tell anyone."

"I have sent four more dossiers to your terminal," TIM said. "I have tried to get Wrex and Liara but I am unable to get a hold of them. Wrex is back on his planet and Liara may be working with the Shadow Broker. If she is, then I can't get her on your team. One of the four dossiers are special to you."

John narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I'm talking about that Quarian, Tali'Zorah vas Neema, you care about," TIM said. "We have been monitoring her for weeks; I think she would be a good asset, don't you?"

John glowed blue. "You've been spying on her and Ragan," he asked angrily.

Ragan looked at TIM and put his finger across his neck and slide it across. "Next time you spy on anyone you will be hunted and killed."

"Making sure she's safe, after all, she is tied to your will to fight Reapers, just like Ragan. Although, while you are giving dirty looks, she's in trouble and she may need your help."

"What do you mean," Jane asked.

"She's now deep in Geth territory. She's there with a team of Quarian marines, gathering data on the planet's local star. Transmissions from the planet suggest that a Geth patrol discovered their position and are now engaging the Quarians. I'll send you the coordinates to the planet, as well as all the information we have."

"Joker, did you get the coordinates," John asked out loud.

"Yes, Staff-Commander. I'm plotting a course now. Hackett sent them first then TIM," Joker confirmed.

"This isn't done, not by a long shot," John said coldly.

"Of course," TIM said smugly. "Good luck, John. Godspeed with you." The comm link then shuts down.


	89. Chapter 57: Tali part 1

Chapter 57: Tali part 1

John tapped his foot on the floor of the shuttle restlessly, as the shuttle got close to the planet, Haestrom. Although Kaiden, Ragan, Jane and Garrus told him to get some rest before the mission, he couldn't sleep. All he could think about was the safety of his girlfriend. John wasn't the only one worried about Tali, all of them were worried also, but more so of how John would react if he found Tali dead, they shuddered at the thought.

John frowned. "Can't this shuttle go any faster," he asked impatiently.

"Ragan, how many times is that he asked," Jane asked. Ragan chuckled.

"I say that is the ninth time," Ragan said. He then looked at Garrus, "Can't you use concussive shot on him to... oh, I don't know, knock him out?" Garrus was about to say something but kept his mouth shut.

"We'll get there, John," Kaiden said.

"Yeah, she can handle herself and I doubt they'd have sent her without support," Garrus said why trying to keep the shuttle from crashing. "We'll get our girl out of there."

"Yeah…," John said worried.

"Don't worry," Jane tried to lift his hopes up. "We will get her back and alive."

"If that doesn't happen, you can kill me," Ragan said jokingly. Garrus and Kaiden looked at him before laughing. Garrus then quickly got out when they heard a beep.

**Hours before touchdown – SSV Normandy SR-2 – Debriefing Room**

_John brought the hologram for Haestrom, John, Garrus, Kaiden, Ragan, and Jane were in the conference room, planning out a way to get Tali out of the cluster fuck the fleet sent them Quarian in. The hologram changed to the planet's orbit. "There is a Geth cruiser hiding behind one of Haestrom's moons. I know Geth are synthetics and patient but even the Geth would have no reason to just have an assault ship sitting behind a moon on the off-chance that someone showed up in a system that hasn't seen sentient organic vistor's since the Geth-Quarian – The Morning War – civil war," Ragan said._

_"Though, very much like Cerberus," Garrus said dryly. "Still, a whole cruiser for a small research team, a bit overkill for the Geth, not their style."_

_John face became grim. "It's a trap…"_

_"How so," Garrus asked._

_"Think back to Horizon, Garrus; the attack on the colony was anything but random… they wanted John," Kaiden said with a frown. "Tali is just the bait to lure him in Reaper hands, just like I was."_

_"Yeah, but unlike Horizon the Quarians won't get the same treatment of that us Humans have," John said grimly. "They'll be killed, no questions asked."_

_"Just like the colonists from Freedom's Progress," Ragan said. "Collectors and Geth act the same. I say that the Geth have some kind of software that is connected to the Reapers like two years. Course Saren was the one that was that software."_

_"So what's the plan," Garrus asked. John pressed a button, and a holograph sprung up over the table, showing a map of a large complex. In the middle was a small dot._

_"According to the data, this is the area that the Quarian vessel touched down, it is logical to surmise that they are looking for data from somewhere within this complex. Unfortunately the Geth have reached the same conclusion. One dropship has already touched down on the surface while another is on its way from the frigate," Jane said. "Since the dropship is capable of transporting a standard company's worth of Geth soldiers, along with support armatures if properly equipped. We're looking at no more than fifteen to twenty Quarians on the planet, and the data they lost half that."_

_"Damn that many," Garrus was completely shocked. "The fleet sent them on a suicide mission…"_

_"Which is why we're going to be the wild card in this, cause so much of a ruckus that the Geth will focus on us," Ragan said with a devilish grin. "With some luck, we can get the pressure off of the Quarians so they can retreat and finish the job while he kill the Geth."_

_"Lightening the Quarian's load, pluse we get to wreck some geth," Garrus said with a smirk. "I like this plan already."_

_"Alright, let's do this," John said. "Be prepared and Ragan, you have had more experience with the Geth than any of us, you will be leading the ground team."_

**NOW**

The shuttle made touchdown on the planet and landed. The team came out of the shuttle, ready for battle. The first thing that hit them, was the heat which was overwhelming even in the shade. As the team moved out, Ragan couldn't help but notice the building, maybe at one point Haestrom was a thriving colony. From the all the equipment that litter the area, it was a former mining colony, but now all that was left were shattered windows or walls full of scorch marks from the burning sun. John understood why Tali and the other Quarians talked so much about the homewold, stories of their former glories were only thing keeping them going…

As the team moved throught he complex, solar radiation weakened the team's shields. "Having problems with my shields," Garrus said.

"Let's move to the shade," Jane said. They went inside the building where they saw a destroyed geth and a video log with a Quarian.

"Emergency Long entry: The Geth are here. I've stayed to buy the others time," the log said. "If anyone gets this, find Tali'Zorah, she and her data are all that matters. Keelah sa'lia."

"We have to hurry," Ragan said. The rest of the nodded. The team went to an open area full of containers, equipment and stone structures when some Geth dropped in and opened fired. They quickly went to cover, first up was several troopers, Kaiden and Garrus overloaded their systems while Ragan and John smashed them against the wall with grenades and throw fields. More came dropping in, John notices that the Geth wasn't as effect with Haestrom's sunlight as they were. In fact they seemed to be actively trying to force the team into the sun.

"Watch out don't let them flank you," John said. As soon as he said that a geth appeared as his side pointing its shotgun at him. "Shit!" John rolled out of the way, but unfortunately he rolled into the sun, right where the Geth wanted him. He heard his omni-took beeped and saw that his shields were draining, John moved quickly to get to the nearest cover. However, the Geth had other plans as they were ignoring the four members and focusing exclusively on the Spectre. A bullet struck him in the arm, his shields drained faster than he thought, more of the geth were about to open fire on John, until shots rang out, it was Ragan and Garrus with their sniper rifles. Kaiden froze the hunter and thre it against the prefabs while Jane threw three grenades; Garrus overloaded their systems and then took their heads off with headshots. And soon the battle was down; John went back to the shade to patch himself up with medi-gel.

"You okay, John," Kaiden asked.

"Yeah, caught off-guard by that cloaking Geth," John said moving his arm. "Shit, I didn't even know they had cloaking capabilities, won't make that mistake again…" John got up as soon as his shields recharged to full, and scanned the area, lots and lots with barely any shade to go around. The Geth was definitely going to make them working to get to Tali. "Let's go."

"You heard the man, let's go," Ragan ordered.

They moved forward; advancing quickly from any shade they could find, one man point and cover, two advances, and one stays back to cover behind and repeat. The Geth did not make it easy as they using every trick in the book to run them out of cover. The toughest of the Geth were the destroyers with their flamethrowers, it was even worse if the hunters got involved, making the team to abandon good cover, while rocket troopers shot them afar. Eventually they were able to get through the heavy fighting and made it to some ruins with shade.

The ruins were clearly ancient, much of the details etched into the stone having faded with time, but surprisingly most of the heavy hardware was intact. Apparently back when they had planets the Quarians built things to last. It was an odd juxtaposition considering the way they survived in present time, constantly salvaging used vessels and patching up damaged one. In one of the rooms they found the dead Quarian, his suit riddled with holes. The damage to the door made it clear that he'd barricaded himself in to attempt to hold back the attackers.

"Damn, I feels sorry for this lad," Ragan said while checking the armor.

Kaiden shook his head. "A pointless waste of life," he said.

Ragan got up. "At least he fought to his dying breath. Better than other people like you back on Virmire." Kaiden looked at Ragan and bowed his head. Ragan was right, Kaiden wanted to die but Ragan wanted the whole crew to live. Ragan's fault for it but he did it because he saved many.

"We can't help him," John said. "Let's go." A radio near the fallen and a rough voice come from the speaker.

"This is Kal Afa team, is anybody left over there? Come on, you bosh'tets answer me!"

Picking up the radio, Ragan spoke, "Kal'Reegar, this is Ragan. I'm here with Commander Johnathan Ryu Shepard. I'm afraid your team is down."

"Ragan? You're Miss Tali's human helped before being transferred back to the Alliance, what are you doing here," Kal asked.

"Never mind that, soldier. Is… is Tali still alive," Ragan asked worriedly. He wasn't worried about Tali's death that much because soldiers to him are expandable, but he was worried about John.

"Yeah. Glad to hear from you again, Mirgrant Fleet Marines sent us down here to get some data. We're getting tore up here, the last of my squad has sealed Tali'Zorah in a bunker but it's a mess down there though."

"Where are you and her?"

"To the north," Reegar replied. John felt relief even as they kept moving. The radio line dissolved into static for a moment before Kal'Reegar came on again. "Whoa. Got to go!"

"Move out." Now those they had a firm location, the team moved double time. They relied on the element surprise and superior firepower to quickly overtake the remaining Geth in their path. However they didn't go down without a fight, especially in the area full of pillars where they had to face a bunch of Geth drones, reinforced by four Geth primes. Kaiden, Jane, John and Garrus took them out quickly because their pulse emitters that could rip through their shields faster than the sun. However more and more came flying in, with the primes coming in trying to flank them. While Kaiden and Garrus handled the drones, Jane and Ragan focused on the back for a Geth troopers were coming and John ofcued on the Geth Primes. John took out his rocket launcher blasting them with rockets, when the drones were all down, Garrus and Kaiden joined John in the onslaught then Jane and Ragan joined, taking down the primes.

Within a few minutes they had rounded a corner to find Quarian soldier kneeling behind cover, holding his side. Seeing them he quickly motioned to them to get down, the reason quickly apparent as a massive blast of energy tore into the rock face behind him. He drove and rolled, coming up next to the marine. "Kal'Reegar, is that you," Ragan asked.

Kal smirked. "Big Shepard, huh? Thought you wouldn't be wearing that mask," he joked. "Miss Zorah is in the bunker behind me, my men made sure to lock down the place good. The Geth tried to hack their way in… But let's just say it's hard to hack a door when some pr'del is shooting rockets at you."

"Great so a big bag Quarian that calls himself son of a bitch is doing this," Ragan joked.

"And the colossus," Garrus asked, not even bothering to peek out from behind cover. Ragan threw a smoke grenade.

"That would be the big problem of the day. I can't get a clear shot at the thing where it's at, best I can do is rattle its optics before it huddles down to repair and recharge," Kal'Reegar said, patting the launcher sitting next to him.

"You're hit, marine," Kaiden said. Ragan saw his other hand still at his side and it was stained in red blood.

"Please tell me, that you didn't go on the walkways," John asked. He knew the answer that was about to come out.

"Yea, one of the bastards punctured my suit when I tried to get closer for a better shot, but don't worry about me. I'm swimming in antibiotics and enough painkillers to make an Elcor woozy. Every marine on this mission was prepared to die to protect Miss Zorah and complete this mission and it looks like most of them did."

"Right, keep your head down, we'll take it from here," John said. Ragan nodded.

The Quarian growled, a sound he had never heard from before from one of his people. Though his experience was limited to Tali. "Hell with that, I've got some fight left in me. This launcher still works, I can still fire." Kal tried to get up, but John held him down.

"Stand down no, how do you think Tali would feel if you died," John asked.

"But…"

"Look Kal, you've done enough," Ragan said. "You throw your life at the Geth, you will fail your mission. Do you think that is what soldiers do all the time? No, we soldiers fight to win, not to fail and die."

"Besides, we need you to keep an eye on the way we came from when they try to flank us," Jane said.

Kal sighed and picked up a rifle. "Alright, Big Shepard. I hope you know what you're doing," he replied, gripping the rifle tightly. "Most of the Geth are located on the left side of the area, so if you take that catwalk on the right, you should be able reach the colossus without much problem. Keep in mind that it has a clear shot of you there; watch out for its siege pulses." Ragan nodded, he took the power cells from Reegar's missile launcher to replenish his Cain. With his mini-nuke replenished, he was ready to fight.

"Let's go," Ragan ordered. He ran towards the catwalk, staying behind cover as much as possible as he heard sniper rifles shots behind him and a smoke grenade blocked his heat signatures.


	90. Chapter 57: Tali part 2

Chapter 57: Tali part 2

The team reached the catwalk and ducked behind the solid metal railing, just as the siege pulse from the Colossus flew over them, impacting the stone wall on the side. Pieces of rubble rained around, but they got up and ran forward. A Geth trooper appeared before John, and he took cover behind a stone block. He leaned over his cover and shot the trooper before grabbing it and killing him after a flip, sparks flying as the omni-tool went through the metallic neck, before a large chuck of it was separated off and the Geth twitched on the ground, disabled after a few seconds.

Once again he ducked as a siege pulse from the Colossus blasted nearby. He got up and ran; he was almost to the end of catwalk. Suddenly another Geth trooper emerge from behind some cover. John instantly raised his SMG to shoot at it, but its head miraculously exploded pieces of metal and sparks sprayed from where its head had been. John could hear the echo of a sniper rifle resonating on the walls.

"Kal'Reegar is a good shot," John said.

"He's okay," Garrus muttered. Kaiden raised his brow.

"Jealous, Garrus?"

Garrus snorted. "I said okay, not great. I still hold that title."

"As well as the title for the galaxy's biggest ego," Jane joked. "I know you Garrus."

"Shut it you three, we can joke after we get Tali," John ordered. He jumped down off the end of the catwalk, and took cover behind a large stone pillar. The Colossus was just ahead of him, it was locked on John. It launched another siege pulse in his direction, but the team's cover handled the blast. However they were not safe, and Geth destroyers and hunters came up to ramp to the left to get the team out of cover. Kaiden and Jane gunned down the hunter and smashed it into the destroyer, just as it was going to use its flamethrower, with the Geth on the ground Garrus overloaded the destroyer's tanks and it exploded.

Two Geth units come up and Ragan quickly got his sniper rifle and shot them while they were lining up one behind the other. He breathed slowly before pulling the trigger to take both heads off and the bullet ricottas off the wall to the Colossus and starts damaging it. Garrus looked at him and gave a big grumble. "What? My plan, my bullet, it worked," Ragan said. He did planned that shot before because he used regular bullets than the lightweight ones.

Before they could take on the colossus, Geth troopers and rocket troopers surrounded the large Geth. Some shots rang out, and Kal took down three rocket troopers, while John took down the troopers. Garrus gunned down more destroyers and hunters that were trying to get up the ramp to flank, however while the Turian were handling their flank, he was wide open for the colossus' siege pulse, pushing back Garrus into the sun. A spark happened and the Turian's shields was gone.

"Damn it…," he cursed as the colossus was preparing to fire again. With no shields, this was going to hurt very badly. Kaiden emerged, and used his reave before the Colossus' primary weapon could fire, and began to unload rounds for his assault rifle at the colossus, withering down its shields. Garrus got back into the shad added to Kaiden's fire, draining the colossus' shields drained faster. The team took cover as the Colossus fired another siege pulse, and emerged once again, continuing to shoot at it. Garrus and Kaiden finally began to see the assault rifle rounds impacting its body; shields finally down.

"Ragan, now's your chance," Kaiden said. Ragan nodded and pulled out his Cain. It was time to destroy this thing. Ragan held the Cain ready, and waited until the Colossus once again shot a siege pulse in his direction. It impacted nearby, sending chips of rock and dust flying everywhere. He then emerged from his cover one last time and launched the twenty-five gram bomb at the unshielded colossus. The bomb impacted the Colossus 'neck' and before it could recover from the impact, an explosion happened. The Colossus was still intact that another bomb came and another. The Colossus was being utterly bombarded by bombs, not being given the chance to stabilize itself and return fire.

Ragan went down to ground level and just kept pulling the trigger, launching bomb after bomb, walking towards the Colossus as each bomb fired. There was anger and hate in his face, towards the Geth which had threatened Tali's life and killed his father when he was two years old. Suddenly, the bomb blasts against the colossus stopped. Nothing happened when he pulled the trigger. The Cain was out of ammunition.

"FUCK," he cursed. The colossus managed to fully regain its balance, and stood upright. It was very badly damaged. The team then looked on with terror, as it began to descent unto itself; it was beginning to use its repair protocol. All the damage he had inflicted would be negated, and he was out of bombs to do it again. He needed to think and fast if he needed to find a way to finish it off.

"Plan B, Kaiden," John said as he switched to a grenade launcher.

"I thought you never ask," he said with a smirk.

Kaiden threw a new Heavy weapon to Ragan. It was a white cannon with four firing ports with the Alliance logo on the side, unlike a lot of Alliance weapon designs, this cannon was sleek, with a smooth curve as its hilt. He fired the cannon; it released a barrage of miniature missiles, each of which hit the colossus. The Geth was taking hits faster than it could repair itself until they said the Colossus body get pushed a few feet into the air and tossed to the side, as parts and pieces of it flew in every direction. The blast had ripped an entire leg off it, sending it flying. The bright optic on the Colossus' head turned off; it was completely disabled. Ragan pulled the trigger one last time and another barrage hit the colossus and he pulled it again and more missiles came out, as the missiles hit the large Geth more of its parts started to fall apart until it exploded, give Ragan some smug satisfaction.

"What the hell is that," Garrus asked going down the stairs.

"The M-560 Hydra, a new weapon from the Alliance," Jane said proudly. "The Hydra releases a barrage of miniature missiles, each guided by an independent homing system that seeks out exposed enemies. On impact, three shaped charges per missile explode in sequence. The first overloads the target's kinetic barriers before the second destroys its armor, clearing a path for the third to detonate inside the target.

"You are such a nerd," Kaiden said.

Jane shrugged. "Don't knock it until you try it. I had to ask Anderson to pull a lot of favors to get this weapon since it was just off the factor line."

John scanned the locking mechanism with his omni-tool. After a short while Kaiden and Garrus reached him. "We got here just in time, these Geth were almost done hacking into this down," John told them. He picked as his omni-tool, working on opening the door. He was about to step inside when a shotgun blast tore a chunk from the stone wall at the edge of the door. A familiar voice, clear and angry came from within the room.

"Bring it on, bosh'tets! If I'm going to die, I'm taking you with me," Tali came up out of cover, ready to shoot.

"Damn, Tali," Ragan said with his hands up in the air.

"Whoa, Rookie! Chill it's me," John assured her.

"John," Tali asked. She suddenly dropped her shotgun and ran to John and jumped into his arms. John embraced her tightly and kissed her mouthpiece. "Keelah, I'm so glad to see you. What are you doing here?"

"Saving your ass, Rookie. I got information that you were in trouble and came here as soon as we could."

"You… heard I was in trouble and flew to a planet full of Geth to help," she asked. "You are the most foolish, idiotic, brave, and sweetest bosh'tet I have ever known."

John kissed her forehead. "Anything for my girl." He had a smirk on his face.

"What about me," Ragan asked.

"And me," Jane asked.

"Hey, what about us," Kaiden asked with a smile.

"Kaiden, Garrus, Jane, Ragan," Tali said embracing her three friends. "How have you been?"

"Keeping the boss alive, you know how he likes suicidal odds but this time, Ragan had this mission," Garrus said with a smirk. Tali giggled.

"Thank you for keeping my bosh'tet alive."

"Oh ha ha," John said in mock-annoyance. He then smiled at Tali. "If your mission is complete after this, I was hoping you could join the Normandy again, Miss vas Neema."

At the mention of the mission, the Quarian turned back to the console and hit a few buttons. Her shoulders slumped and she shook her head. "The mission. I hope this data is worth the lives the Admiralty Board just used up to get it. I can't believe information on dying stars is worth the lives of all those marines."

A grunt came from behind them, followed by a pained laugh. "Not all of those marines, ma'am." Kal came in holding his side.

"Kal," she said, spinning on her heel. "You're alive!"

"Thanks to your Commander, here. You weren't kidding about this guy. You kept talking about him and here I was thinking it was just tall tales from the Pilgrimage but he handled that colossus nice… if not terribly neat. Tell me, did we get what we came for?"

Tali lowered her head. "We did. I just hope it was worth it."

"So do I," Kal'Reegar said. He then smirked. "So, I'm guessing you are going with John."

"Yes, I'm leaving with him. I saw this mission to the end just as I promised to. If the Admirals have a problem with it, they can go to Hell."

"I'll send the results to the Admirals then. You two take care of each other, like good Keintiman," Kal responded with a smirk.

"There was a second person we need from here," Ragan said with a huge smirk. "You are also needed. I can forward the data to them. Hackett asked for you to join the mission via dossier." Kal looked at them and gave a proud grunt.

"Alright," Kal said. "So now your Keintiman is my boss."

John tilted his head in confusion, not getting the word, but Tali seemed to as she was blushing hotly. "Kal!"

"Alright guys, lead the way to the shuttle," John said, and they all began to move out. Kal'Reegar, Kaiden, Jane and Garrus walked in front, leading the group to the shuttle.

"Um, Rookie. What does Keintiman mean," John asked.

Tali blushed. "It means my beginning and my end; it's what we refer to Quarians who have bonded."

John smiled then kissed her. "Saya sayang kamu."

"Saya sayang kamu, jiwa," she said.

Tali and John followed behind them, holding each other's hands as they walked while Ragan had his assault rifle ready for a surprise attack.


	91. Chapter 58: Changes

Chapter 58: Changes

After being rescued on Haestrom, Tali and Kal were recruited by John to take on the Collectors. Both were excited, Tali was going to once again work with the man she loved. When they came on the ship, Joker was the first one to greet her. They joked a few times about old times, but then he grew silent, and apologized about what happened with the original Normandy. Ragan apologized for not being there when John needed him the most, to escape and live. Tali forgave them both, those were dark times and she had forgotten that it wasn't just her that suffered from john's death. Tali then asked if there was any more of the old crew that is on board, Joker smirked and told her Chakwas and Adams was also on board. She smiled, her boyfriend, Garrus, Kaiden, Joker, Jane, Ragan, Adams and Chakwas were here with her it started to feel like the old days, but then as she walked deeper into the ship and saw the Cerberus logo and personnel, the cruel reality set in.

"This isn't right," she muttered. John looked at her.

"What isn't right, Rookie," John asked.

"That Cerberus is here, that they build the Normandy it feels like a sick joke," she said as John hugged her.

"I know. After we finish with the mission, I'm cutting ties but until then we have to play nice, okay?"

"Oaky," she said. They went into the conference room and met with Jacob and Ragan.

"Cerberus saw footage of you in action, Tali'Zorah," Jacob said. "We're looking forward to having you on the team, the mission will benefit from your engineering expertise." Kal comes in and shakes his head at the sight of Jacob's Cerberus armor. "I see the Quarian marine, Kal'Reegar is here. He is a good shot."

Tali crossed her arms. "Don't play nice, I still haven't forgotten what Cerberus did to the fleet."

"Yes, Cerberus lackeys are everywhere," Kal said.

"Rookie…," John said.

"Reegar," Ragan said in a stern voice.

"Yes, sir," Kal saluted Ragan before looking at Jacob.

Tali sighed and looked back at Jacob. "I'll work with you, but that's all, I'm here for John and my old friends."

"I can respect that," Jacob said. "I understand your distrust. But since I wasn't part of the team that did that, you won't get attacked by me. I hope we can get pass that."

"Feel free to study the ship," John said. "Kal, you can help with in the Armory. I'll give you full access. For both of you."

"Thank you, John. I can't feel secure without knowing how the ship works," Tali said before walking to the door then stop. "I'll be down in engineering."

"Alright, I'll check on you when things are down here," John said. Tali nodded.

"Don't forget to introduce yourself to EDI, the Normandy's AI/VI," Jacob said. John groaned and palmed his face. Kal and Tali looked back and glared at him.

"It's not what you think," Ragan calmly said. "It has shackles so it's not a real AI but since it was created on the verge of being an AI, it has to be a VI so we called her AI/VI. Well they do, I call her the Vanguard of our Destruction."

As Tali looked through the ship, she couldn't stop thinking about what Jacob said. '_The Normandy has an AI/VI? Those pribadi would commit the same mistake as we did._' She thought angrily about that. As she continued through the ship, she notice some of the Cerberus personnel, they didn't look particularly dangerous, in fact she had a surprisingly pleasant conversation with one of them, a woman named Kelly, who didn't seem like she would fit in with an organization like Cerberus.

"So you must be Tali," a voice behind her.

Tali jumped and turned around to see nothing there. "W… Who are you bosh'tet," he asked nervously.

"I have to say, cuz didn't tell me, how cute you were," the voice said with a laugh.

"Cuz," she asked.

The voice revealed inself to be a woman was dressed in a black full body suit, with a metallic colored material artistically woven in two pieces from her torso to her thighs. A black hood was thrown over her head, masking all but a glint of eyes in its shadow. A pair of lips was curved in a smile, a bright pink stripe over the bottom lip, adding a touch of flair to be appearance.

"Yeah," Kasumi said. "I'm Kasumi Goto, I'm John's cousin. And Ragan's half-brother."

"Cousin? Brother? They never told about any other family other than the one on Mindoir," Tali said.

"Well, we only met recently," she said with a smile. "You should have seen their faces; it was kinda like yours actually."

"Yeah, about that, what's the big idea? You scared me shitless." Kasumi gave a big laugh.

"You are definitely John's girlfriend," she said with a smile.

Tali crossed her arms. "You're avoiding the question, Kasumi," she said annoyed.

"Sorry, just a bit of practice."

"Practice for what?"

"I'm a professional thief; the best in the business, actually, but not the most famous. Need to watch my step to keep it that way. I was just using the opportunity to keep my skills sharp," Kasumi said proudly.

Tali's wyes went wide. "What?!"

Kasumi tilted her head. "I hope my choice of occupation isn't an issue."

"Hell yeah it's an issue, Quarians may have a reputation as thieves and vagrants throughout the galaxy but any of us who resort to stealing do so out of necessity, not because we enjoy it. Thievery is a serious crime among my people. So regardless of what you may think, I am not like you, and if you think I'd find it acceptable because…"

"Chill, I know about your people's reputation, trust me Lia gets it all the time."

"Who's Lia," Tali asked. Just then she heard a voice. Out of one of the rooms, came a Quarian woman in a black and red suit. The woman was very young, nineteen or twenty at best. She walked towards the two of them with a very annoyed look on her face, mostly likely directly at the hooded woman.

"Onē-san, I told you to wait before using…," she said before seeing Tali. "Oh, are you Onii-chan's girlfriend?"

"Onii-chan," Tali asked tilting her head. "You mean John?"

"Sorry about that, I taught Lia some Japanese," Kasumi said. "She's been looking forward to meeting someone from the Fleet."

"Kasumi, I keep on telling you the stealth cloak upgrades needs to be tested first," Lai said annoyed.

"Bet I feel naked without the cloak, you know that," Kasumi whined. Lia gave her a look and Kasumi sighed. "Fine, but do hurry."

"I will, I hope we can talk some more Miss Tali," she said with a bow.

"Please, just Tali," she said. Lia nodded and went back to their room. "What did you mean she wa soloing forward to meeting someone from the Fleet?"

"Lia is a nedas, a daughter of an exile," Kasumi explained. "She knows nothing of the fleet, other than what her parents told her."

"Oh Keelah…," Tali gasped. "Does she know about your occupation?"

Kasumi shook her head. "No, but I'll have to tell her at some point."

"You care about her."

"She's like my little sister and I hate to lie to her about my work, but I'm afraid how she will react to find out I've used her invention to steal," she said sadly.

"Don't worry, it'll all work out," Tali said. "And don't worry, I'll teach her about the fleet."

"Thanks," Kasumi said walking away. "I look forward to working with you."

Tali went down to engineering; she met some of her new teammates. Grunt was like Wrex except much more violent and impatient with none of the charm that the older Krogan had. Zaeed reminded her of Ragan and John, except older and a lot gruffer than the two cousins. As for Jack, she didn't met, but from what she could tell from the fuck you she yelled out, she was very, very angry, it was going to be very interesting working with them to say the least.

Shen then met with the engineers she would be working with. Donnelly and Gabby were again a pleasant surprise, even though they were Cerberus, they didn't hold the same any of the views of aliens that the rest of the organization held. She found the duo quite funny, Donnelly with his bad attempts at trying to seduce Tali and Gabby straightening him out with an elbow to the gut. It was in some ways it was kind of eerie to watch how they how they interacted, it was kinda like how he and John was like back on the original Normandy. She then started to miss the old days, things were much simpler back then, but at least she had the systems to work on, she could say this about the Cerberus ship, it improved on almost everything on the original and with improvements could be ever better.

She then felt strong arms wrap around her. "I know you're there John, you can't surprise me anymore," she said with a smile.

"Spoilsport," John said. He then kissed her on the back of her helmet. "How are things? Are you getting adjusted?"

"Say what you will about Cerberus, but they know ships," she said with glee. "Though I don't know if it can stand up to Collector fire, I have some ideas but I need to run some simulations."

"How is it that my sister, good ninja cousin and girlfriend are complete nerds," John asked with a smirk. She turned around and faced John with a smile.

"I don't know about the others but I know with me, you find brains sexy," Tali said in sultry voice. She then proceeded to grab Joh's ass, the Spectre gave a leacherous smirk.

"Hmm, fuck yeah, got any idea," John asked.

"Well…," she said playfully. John got the idea and grabbed her hand.

"Donnelly, Gabby you can take care of this, right? If Adams returns from his break, tell him that Tali needed some fresh air," John said. Before the duo could talk, John and Tali was already out of engineering and into the elevator. All of a sudden before John could press the button to his room, Tali's arms went under his shirt and took it off and then activated the nerve stim pro to get her in the mood, while, so John pressed the button.

"EDI, lock the elevator, no one gets the elevator until we get to my room," John said.

"Yes, Staff-Commander. Should I also activated the decontamination unit in your room," the voice said in the little speaker that is on the ceiling.

"Duh," he said as he kissed Tali's neck. She moaned

"Decon unit? You thought of everything," she said. As the elevator went up, the couple was feeling each other up; John hooked on of her legs around his hip, ran his hand up to grab and pull her tight against him. His other hand roamed over her suit to mold his fingers around her breast while, until they reached John's cabin.

"Decontamination until activated," EDI stated.

"I almost like the damn thing now," Tali said as she ripped off her helmet. She kissed John's lips hungrily as John took off her suit. Tali pressed John against the wall of his cabin. Her hands went up his chest to his shoulders to dive down arms that were circled around her. With a groan, John turned to her, so that she was pressing the wall. His lips trailed down her neck to her breasts, she shuttered and moaned at his touch. He then smirked, Tali squeals in surprise when John picks her up and walks over to the bed.

"You're so strong," she said with a smirk.

"I was rebuilt well," he said. John went to her breasts and sucked on them as Tali moaned. "Alliance and Cerberus found my body intact. I was in a coma but you know what lying on a bed does to muscle."

Tali push him off. "Pants off, now," she said breathlessly.

"Yes ma'am," he said as he frantically took his pants and underwear off. Tali pulled him to the bed and stroked his cock.

"Like it," she asked flirtingly.

"Ah fuck," he said in pleasure. He went to her neck and nuzzled it. "I missed you," he whispered in her ear. "I'm sorry that I couldn't get a hold of you when I woke up. The research facility that was keeping me alive got attacked and then Hackett and TIM got me in the mission. I missed you so much, I just want you with me."

"Show me," she said. John smirked and went down between her legs. "Sayang…," she moaned as he licked and fingered her clit. John was then on his back, Tali looked at him in confusion, until he glowed blue and she found herself glowing and in the air. The biotic field was gentle and yet intense at the same time, she herself on top of John as he used biotics to guide her to his cock and trust her gently; Tali wrapped her arms around his neck and held on as he increased in intensity. She then got off and turned around with her ass facing John, she looked back with a sly smile on her face. John looked at her with surprise.

"Why Ms. vas Neema, you are a dirty, dirty girl," John said with a smirk. "I'm surprised…"

"Good," Tali said in a sultry voice. John got up behind her and stuck his cock in her ass, the Quarian's eyes flash as she flet the jolt of pain, after all it was her first time suggesting anal, but John was gentle as usual, going slowly at her pace. When she was ready, the Spectre went faster and more intense, making her knees go weak until she was on all fours. John's cock got out of her ass and he wrapped his arms around her waist as his cock went into her vagina again, he laid on his back with Tali on him thrusting into her. Tali was in ecstasy, she was glad to see death did slow him down one bit. It was too much for Tali, and she gave loud scream of pleasure.

"I'm… I'm," she repeated. "KEELAH!" The couple released together, Tali turned around and kissed John deeply and the tow embraced. A moment past, and John and Tali rested while the cold air cooled them of their passion. Tali's head rested on John's chest as they stared at the stars.

"It's beautiful," she said. John smiled and kissed her forehead.

"It is, but not as beautiful as you," she said. "I know it will be hard to work with Cerberus and an AI/VI, but I need you, more than you know."

Tali looked at him, his eyes was dull and tired, despite acting like his old self in front of the crew, in reality something bothered him.

Tali kissed him. "What's wrong?"

"You remembered when I got spaced," he asked solemnly. Tali grabbed his arm tightly; it was something she didn't want to remember.

"Yes," she said sadly.

"I… I can't get the images out of my head," he strained. "I still remember everything, the pain in my chest, choking for air, as I watched our home get destroyed by the Collectors." She looked at him. Tears fell from his eyes as he struggled to get the next words out. "Seeing that day over and over, seeing everyone in danger, you in danger, and I couldn't… do anything, not a damn thing…"

Tali held him tightly. "Shh, you came back to us, to me," she choked. "That's all that matters."

"That and killing the Collectors. I love you," he said softly. The two lovers kissed deeply.

"I love you too, more than you know."


	92. Chapter 59: Blue Vengeance

Chapter 59: Blue Vengeance

Kaiden and Garrus were eating breakfast in the crew quarters until they saw Tali and John meet them. Ragan the comes up with a datapad in his hand, looking at the information. John had a huge grin on his face, while Tali was sneezing a little. Ragan looked at them when he heard Tali sneeze five times in a row. Garrus and Kaiden looked at them with a knowing look of what they did. Although, they understood with John being in a coma for two years, they had a lot of catching up to do. Tali was the first to sit down, while John went to get their breakfast. Ragan sat down and starts typing on his omni-tool.

"You two had fun," Kaiden asked with a smirk

"Kaiden, please. Don't do this in front of them," Ragan ordered.

"No, it's fine." The Quarian crossed her arms. "Wouldn't you like to know Kaiden."

"Great, tell you not to talk about it and you disobey. Fuck it you fucking seiteki hanashi deki sokonai," Ragan cursed in his native language. They just ignored him.

"Trust me, we already know," Garrus said. "A Quarian orgasm is hard to miss." Tali blushed. John came up to the table and gave Kaiden a disparaging look.

"Kaiden...," John said.

Ragan laughed then tried to hold it in when Kaiden looked at him. "I warned you and now you feel the pain."

"Sorry, you two couldn't resist," Kaiden said. John gave Tali her nutrient paste, while John had the standard fare eggs, sausage and grits. Ragan had soba with jalapeno peppers and some roasted walnuts.

Kaiden looked at Ragan and then looked at the food. "Is that what you eat?"

Ragan looked at him and gave a sigh. "Yeah, and you do wise to not ask stupid questions like that again." Kaiden was struck back from the comment.

After they were finished eating, it was time to get to work. "What's the plan," Garrus said.

Ragan hands datapad to John after he gulped down the last of his orange juice and looked at Kaiden and Garrus. "We recruit the last two due to a transfer for Private Ashely Williams," John said while reading the datapad. "We are going to recruit a Drell assassin named Thane Krios and an Asari Justicar, Samara; last name unknown. And lucky for us, they're on the same planet, Ilium. Ash is being transferred and she is being stationed at Nos Astra."

"Nice, so we can just pick them and be on our way," Garrus said but he heard Ragan sigh. When Ragan sighs, then something is not right.

"That would be nice, except the dossiers don't tell us where on Ilium they are at. Except Williams," Ragan said. "So we're going to have to shell out some dough."

"Not Information brokers, those people are crooks," the turian said with a groan. Garrus didn't have a problem with information brokers, after all they were essential to vigilante gig back on Omega, he did however have a problem with their prices. Any info could range from a few hundred credits to several million, and since it was Ilium and arm and a leg was pretty much a need for anything good.

"But they do give good info, so suit up. Garrus, Ragan and Tali are coming with me," John said.

The Normandy landed in Nos Astra, the capital city. With its large shiny, ivory towers it seems like a gleaming, beautiful city built by the heavens themselves, however due to it somewhat lax security and regulation of the planet's laws it has been remarked by some characters that the city is not as safe as it looks and that it can be as dangerous as Omega from one wrong turn or screwing with the wrong people. As the center of this, are the cutthroat economic and trade policies that even put the corporate planet Noveria to shame, with stockholders regularly betting if a new colnoy will make it through its first year. With these two sides, Nos Astra is living contradiction.

Tali looked out the window of the spaceport they landed in; she was the first one out waiting for John and Garrus. Ragan followed her out and started meditating on the floor. "Keelah...," Tali said in awe. She looked back at John as he got out of the ship. "John, we have to come here for a date one of these days," she said with a smile.

John smirked and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Sounds like a plan, but first business before pleasure."

"Hmm, aye-aye, Commander," she said in a sultry voice.

Ragan got up from the floor and looked at them before shaking his head. "Do I need to get you a private room twenty four-seven on each deck on the Normandy?"

Garrus snorted and shook his head. "Don't and say we did." Ragan laughed and then stopped when John looked at him with a stern look. "Don't be fooled, this place is Omega with nice buildings."

The Quarian huffed. "You've become the pessimist, Garrus."

"It's not pessimist, it's just me being a realist," he countered. He then saw an Asari with an elegant blue and red gown walking down he spaceport towards the team. In tow with here were two LOKI mechs, although the Asari didn't look like she was going to cause trouble, John and the team were prepared just in case.

"Welcome to Nos Astra, Staff-Commander Shepard. We've been instructed to waive all docking and administration fees for your visit due to Spectre authorization," she said.

The Spectre narrowed his eyes. "Okay and you are?"

"My apologies, I am Careena, if you need assistance, don't be shy to ask," the Asari said.

"Why do we get a free pass," Tali asked. "Who waived the fees?"

"Liara T'Soni, paid for all of your fees and expenses."

"Liara," Garrus said to himself.

"When it is convenient for you, she would like to speak to you, she is near the trading floor," Careena said before walking away. Garrus walked forward.

"Wait, why is she here," he asked.

"Liara is the most respected information broker on Nos Astra," she said. "The captial is based upon trade and information in valuable currency, Lira had done well for herself."

"Huh, interesting," John said. "Thanks, we'll see her now." The team made their way to the trading floor; it was a pretty interesting scene, people of different races trying to get rich, successes or failures of other people. However, it stopped being funny when John and Ragan heard some of these people were betting on pirates and slavers to attack colonies just to boos their financial forecasts, it reminded them how much they hated corporate bloodsuckers like them.

"I can't believe Li is a broker," Garrus said. Tali and Ragan looked at him.

"Get over it," Ragan said. "Brokers are not that evil. Shadow Broker is a necessary evil but isn't a threat to anyone. Li is probably like who ever this Shadow Broker is. But I wouldn't trust her. TIM said that she is working with the Shadow Broker."

"Forget about Ragan, Garrus," Tali said. "Are you alright though?"

Garrus sighed. "I don't know, to tell the truth. I'm angry at her because she walked out without saying goodbye and I want to see her."

"You still love her," Ragan asked.

"I guess, I mean we had something two years ago, at least I thought so but maybe I was just fooling myself."

"Well, we are going to see her, so maybe she can explain herself," John said.

"Yea, I guess," Garrus said. The team made it to Liara's office, what they saw inside was a very different Asari. She was talking to a Human male, who looked like he pissed his pants.

"Have you faced an Asari Commando before? Few Humans have and lived to tell the tale. Like some of my old friends," Liara said coldly. "I'll make it simple, pay me or I'll flay you alive... with my mind." The Human male quickly flinched and turn off his side of the comm link. John shuddered, it was eerily reminiscent of her mother.

**Two Years Ago - Noveria - Peak 15**

_"As they entered the hot labs, they heard a cold female voice. "You do not know the privilege of being a mother." Surprised, they swung around weapons ready and faced an older Asari. They Asari wore a dark blue gown that shows a modest amount of cleavage and a headdress of the same color. By the looks of her, you wouldn't be able to tell that she was several centuries old. She stood at a comfortable distance, up a small case of stairs on a raised platform; she looked down on them with cold eyes full of murderous intent._

_John looked back at Liara, she looked downtrodden. "Mother…," she said sadly._

_"There's power in creation, Human," Benezia explained. "To shape a life. Turn it towards happiness and despair." She then gave a cold look at the structure next to her. "Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren's enemies." Her cold glare was turned to the team, the team was on their guard, the look she gave meant she is serious, deadly serious to say the least._

_"Give up, Benezia… come quietly and I'll show mercy, but if you force my hand…," John aimed for her head. "I'll put you down and I rather not take down the mother of a friend." Benezia gave a chilling laugh; the team were slightly unsettled by it._

_"Really? Is that why you brought my disappointment of a daughter, to sway me? You truly are naïve, human." He gaze at Liara, and the young Asari felt very small in her gaze. "Tell me Liara, what have you told them about me hmm?"_

_Liara lowered her head. "What could I say Mother? That you're insane? Evil?! I just want… to save you and Shiala wants to save you too." Laira shook her head. "Please stop this mother, please…"_

_"I won't," Benezia answered her daughter. She then glowed blue and looked at John. "Tell me Human, have you ever faced an Asari commando before? Few have…"_

_"I have faced them and I killed all of them that faced me," Benezia was shocked by the tone of his voice. "You'd kill your own daughter, for Saren." John narrowed his eyes at the older Asari._

_Benezia gave a cold laugh, "Kill her?" She shook her head. "I would burn my world if it means bringing Saren greatness!" The team was taken aback by her declaration. She was absolutely beyond reasoning, they would have to fight here._

_"She's nuts…" John looked back at Liara, who was shaking her head at Ash. Utterly defeated with tears down her cheeks, Liara looked at John._

_"Sorry Liara," he whispered. John glowed blue and launched a strong biotic force at the Matriarch. But Benezia waved away the field like it was a piece of paper in the wind. Ash fired at the Asari with her pistol and Wrex was using biotics to stagger her but everything bounced off of her, she was in a biotic barrier and doing by the distortions in the air, it was incredibly powerful._

_"Don't underestimate me, human." Benezia waved her hand again and a stasis field nearly engulfs John, but Tali jumped in the way, she was complete immobilized. Calmly and slowly, Benezia walked back some steps, to make way for several Asari commands appearing from behind her. "Kill them."_

/*

**NOW**

"Liara," John asked.

"John," she said looking back. "Nyxeris, hold my calls." Her eyes soften, much to John's relief, she went over and hugged Tali and John, however when she got to Ragan and Garrus, things were so awkward that they opted for a simple handshake. "My sources said you were alive, but I never believed, it's good to see you."

"You too, though I never seen you ready to off someone in cold blood before," John said with a frown. "Wait, you have sources now?"

Liara chuckled a little. "It's just an act," she said. "A few, sources, contacts even hired muscle. Being an information broker paid the bills and now you're back going after the Collectors with Alliance, Council, and Cerberus."

Ragan looked at her and shook his head. "Liara, sorry to say this but that information is classified until further notice. So how did you get the info?"

"Information is my business now, and if you need information on anything, I'm happy to help," she said before sitting down behind her small desk.

"Okay, I'm looking for three people for my team. Private Ashley Williams," Liara looked at John with big wide eyes for excitement. "Justicar Samara and an assassin Thane Krios."

"I don't know where they are now, but I do know they got here recently. I can call my contacts to find out but it will take some time."

"I guess we'll wait then," Ragan said. "And I want to know something: Is it true that you're working with the Shadow Broker?"

"What? No! I'm not working with whoever it is," Laira said. Ragan could tell that there was sadness in her voice.

"Good, then we can use you back on the Normandy," John asked.

Liara got up and went to the window behind her and started looking. "I can't, I have... things I need to take care of. You have to understand that John."

"Are you in trouble," Garrus asked.

She shook her head. "No, it's been two long years, I had things to do, debts to repay."

Ragan snorted. "I bet, I guess it was so important that you didn't even bother to say goodbye to Garrus and didn't keep in tabs with me." Liara glared at him and approached him, she looked angry and even hurt.

"What makes you think I didn't want to?! I wanted to but I couldn't," she said with emotion. "Just like you left Tali to Captain Anderson so you could work and never return until they requested you and her to the Migrant Fleet."

"My life, my rules, and my job as a former Spectre has nothing to do with this! I had to do it to make sure that Cerberus wasn't trying to lie and destroy the Alliance and Council."

Garrus was wided eyed and quickly got between them. "Okay, just cool down, both of you." Ragan took a slow deep breath to get his anger out of the way. "Okay. Now my turn. Then why, Liara?!"

Liara calmed down. "Look, if you want to help, I need you to help me with hacking. i need people I trust."

"What would you need," John asked.

"If you disable security at key points around Ilium, I can get the info I need. That would help me a great deal," Liara said.

"What's this all about, Liara, you can talk to us," Tali said.

Liara looked down. "Don't you think I want to? This isn't because I don't trust you," she said solemnly. "This is Ilium, anything can be recorded."

"Hacking a terminal is pretty easy, why do you need us," Garrus asked.

"Because I trust you, hacking the terminals won't get you the data, but it will glitch the system. That glitch will make the local server vulnerable for a short time; you can get the data that way. It's like a small EMP."

John sighed. "Alright we'll do it, but afterwards we want answers, you owe us that." Liara gave the team the data and they went on their way. It was located in port, not far from Liara's office, however once they got there; they spotted a lot of security guards in the port. Luckily, there were a lot of people, doing shopping, making business which made it easier to do what they needed to do. Tali and Ragan went to the first terminal, due to being the be fastest hackers on the Normandy, while John and Garrus were on the lookout.

"Shit...," Ragan said while typing.

"What is it," John asked.

"Liara didn't mention there would be a time limit when we hacked it," Tali said. "We got sixty seconds, before it alerts every guard in the area..."

"Shit...," John said. The team went fanatically to the terminals, to not only to get the data but to stop the alarm from going off, which made thing tougher as it made the team suspicious. John and Garrus had to distract the guards when they got too close. it took a while, but they were able to hack all the target terminals. They went back to meet with Liara.

"Done," John said when he saw Liara sitting at her desk.

"Thank you, with the data, I'll be able to find the Shadow Broker's information caches from his agents," Laira said. The team looked at her blankly; the Shadow Broker was very dangerous individual with almost unlimited resources like Cerberus. Most people didn't simply go looking for the illusive information broker, usually it was the other way, and it usually ends with someone dead.

"Is he after you," Garrus asked.

"Actually, he's on the run from me," she said with venom. "We cross paths after you were in a coma John, I've been working to take him down, now I'm a step closer."

"What did he do to you," Tali asked. "I never saw you ready to kill in cold blood before, you always hated violence."

"Things changed, I was on a job with a friend and he didn't escape," Liara said before closing her eyes. "I don't know if he's being tortured or worse. I owe him my life and the Broker needs to pay with his life."

"What if I can help find him," John asked.

"You can, but the Shadow Broker has many contacts, the most powerful is someone called the observer," she looked at Ragan. "I'm sure you can be used for something like this due to your spying on Cerberus." She starts typing on her laptop. "Taking down the Observer will bring me closer to the Shadow Broker."

"Alright, we'll help," John said but heard Ragan groan.

"I'm not helping with this. You can't find him due to the unlimited resources," Ragan said. "Plus even if you do find him, he will have plans to kill you due to intervening his plans. So unless you have something that can help, you're just chasing smoke with your bare hands."

"The data you gave me pointed to logs kept by his agents, the logs were deleted but is is possible to reconstruct it," she said. "The Broker is cautious like Ragan said, so his agents will be referred by their title and race."

"Okay, since you got that far, I may help but don't expect any promises," Ragan said.

"Okay, we'll be back soon," John said.

The team got started; the first terminal was the easiest to get to due to being so close to Liara's office. The first data, was on a Vorcha trader wanting no further contact with a Salarian and the Observer recommended a kill, but may had a grudge. The next terminal was near a bar called Eternity, another easy one, with no heavy traffic they could work in peace. The second data was about a smuggler and assassin refusing to work with a Vorcha due to lack of trust. The third terminal was near Asari and Volus, it was risky due to having potential witnesses, but luckily they weren't paying attention due to the annoyed Asari clerk having to deal with a demanding Volus. The third data was about a trader trying to kill a Batarian, due to hating slavers, but the data said it was likely more than that and tells the Observer to watch them for the time being.

The fourth terminal was a digital information board, smack dabbed in the middle of a busy trading floor, which meant Tali and Ragan had to work fast. The fourth data was about a Turian was asking too many questions, the Observer recommended killing him and framing it on their assassin or Salarian contact. The fifth and final terminal in the previous port they were in, at a kiosk near a store selling merchandise from Serrice Technology, a usually busy store, however due to its employee's being on break, there wasn't much traffic making it easy to extract the data. The last data was about the same Turian only that he was working well with a trader and the Observer withdrew the kill order, due to difficulty in securing contact by other means. After getting data from five terminals, they were able to piece the info together. Liara gave them a call.

"Anything," she said.

"All five are male, the Observer is female, and who gave you this," Ragan asked her.

"My assistant, Nyxeris. SHe gave me the info... Nyxeris gave me the info," she said realizing.

Another woman began to talk, "You will never find the Shadow Broker, pureblood." the comm shut down abruptly, Liara was in danger.

"Liara, Liara," John said. He looked to his team and saw that Garrus was already running to Liara's office with Ragan running on the walls to get there. "Let's hurry," he said before he realized what was going to happen. Tali nodded.

Garrus and Ragan got to the office and saw Liara being held by the neck. The room was ransacked, with the walls full of dents and cracks. The window behind Liara's desk, where Ragan was just barely seen out of, was broken, with her small desk flipped over. "Li," Garrus said. He started to fire at the Asari and hit her in the arm. Nyxeris howled in pain holding her wounded arm. Garrus got in front of Liara, with his gun pointed at Nyxeris. John and Tali caught up soon afterwards, with their guns pointed at the Asari.

"The gang's all here, touching," she mocked.

"Give up, you're surrounded," John said. Nyxeris looked at John.

"Cerberus did a good job in rebuilding, though you should really be thanking Liara for that little gift."

"What do you mean," John asked.

"Have you ever wondered how Cerberus was able to rebuild your body during your coma," Nyxeris asked. She pointed at Liara. "That pureblood right there."

Garrus looked back at Liara. "Li, what does she mean?" Liara looked away from the team ashamed.

"I... I was the one who gave John's body to Cerberus," she said.

"W-What," John asked her. John couldn't believe what he was hearing, the reason he had to work with the very organization he despised was not only because truce but because of a friend. A friend he trusted with his life.

"Why, Liara," Tali asked.

"Go on, tell them why you would betray your only friends," Nyxeris said with a smirk.

"Because they said they could bring you back, John," Liara said. "Because you were the only one who could fight the Reapers, and to do that I had to take it back from the Shadow Broker."

John's eyes went wide. "Why would the Shadow Broker want my body?"

"He was going to sell your body to the Collectors," she said. The team glared back at Nyxeris and raised their weapons at the Asari. Her eyes went wide as she was shot three times then Ragan quickly grabs her leg and throws her out of the broken window. She hit the floor with a loud thud and her lifeless eyes staring at the floor. Liara got off the floor and picked up an OSD that fell out of Nyxeris' pocket during the throw. She looked away unable to face her friends.

"Thane Krios, he is going after Nassana Dantius, you can speak to a dockworker named Seryna," she said. "Justicar Samara arrived recently and is registered with Tracking Officer Dara. Officer Dara can be found at the transportation hub."

"Let's go," John said not looking at Liara. Ragan jumps up and follows John and Tali out of the office.

"I'm sorry...," Liara said softly.

Garrus was the only one left, watching her started the process of cleaning up her office. "I screwed up, Garrus...," Liara said sadly. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. "I barely got away with my own life, when Cerberus came to me, they said they could bring him back, I told myself doing it for the galaxy, but really I did it because I couldn't let go of my only family. I truly am the most pathetic person in the galaxy," she said with tears streaming down her face.

"You did the right thing. The Collectors are working with the Reapers," Garrus said to make her feel joy but it didn't work. "Hey, come here," softly saying to her. He wrapped her in an embrace as she started to cry. "It's alright."


	93. Chapter 60: The Justiciar part 1

Chapter 60: The Justicar part 1

After the shocking revelation that Liara, an old comrade of the Normandy team, turned John's body over to Cerberus and Alliance, the team was split on whether to even trust her again. Tali of course believe Liara had betrayed them, betrayed John by giving his body to Cerberus and Alliance. Garrus was on the other side, believing Liara did what she had to. Kaiden, once he heard about what happened was disturbed, but wasn't going to condemn her so quickly. Jane and Ragan were staying out of it because they must have known something like this would have happened.

"You want us to forgive her," Tali asked. "She betrayed us."

Garrus frowned. "How can you say that Tali," he asked. "Liara had proven herself time and time again; hell she's even fought her own mother to the death."

"Damnit, Garrus, we all know what Cerberus is like, we fought them just as much as we did Saren and Sovereign," Tali hissed. Ragan quickly looked at the two with a mean look. "And she still gave John's body over to them!"

"She didn't have a choice, you would know if you'd just listen to her," Garrus said angrily. "Or would you rather have John stay in the coma or turned over to the Collectors to be the Reaper's slave?!" Tali glared at him.

"How dare you?! I went through hell when he was called dead two years ago," she growled.

"So did the rest of us, what makes you special? Oh, wait because you're screwing the boss," he said. Tali clenched her fist, this was about to escalate quickly. This was a disaster; they just got back together as a team, and this treated to tear the team apart. Kaiden didn't agree with what Liara did, but he understood. Kaiden got between them, to nip this problem in bud.

"Enough, both of you," Kaiden said. He looked at Garrus first. "That was a low blow, Garrus and you know it." Garrus looked away and Kaiden looked at Tali. "And Tali can you honestly say you wouldn't do the same?"

"I...," she said.

"The fact of the matter if we knew back then that Wayne could be brought back to life, we would have joined because he meant something to each of us."

Tali lowered her head. "But it's Cerberus... no matter what... they will never let him go...," she said sadly.

"If Cerberus won't let him go, then we'll make them," Kaiden said firmly. "It's the least we can do, after everything he's done for us." Just then John and Ragan approached, and the team stiffened.

"Hey," John said.

"You... overheard everything," Kiaden asked.

"Yeah, I though I could not forgive her, but listening to you guys made me think...," John said. "Anything could have gone wrong, but it didn't, maybe Liara knew but still she tried, it's easy to get mad at her and yet I can't be angry with her, because in the end, I'm back." He went over to Tali and cupped her cheek. "And I'm staying..." Tali hugged him tightly, Kaiden sighed, they narrowly dodged a bullet there.

Garrus rubbed his head sheepishly. "Look, Tali about what I said... I'm..."

"Don't worry about it, Garrus..."

"I'll take to Liara, it has to be me," John said. "But now we need to find Samara. Kaiden, Ragan and Rookie you're with me."

**Ilium **

The team went to the commercial port to speak with Officer Dara. They then found Dara. "Can I help you with something," the Asari asked.

"I'm looking for an Asari Warrior that is a Justicar named Samara," John said.

Dara looked at John. "Wait, why," she asked. She then went pale. "Did she kill someone already?" John raised a brow, exactly what kind of person was this Justicar for Dara to have this kind of reaction. Now he was really curious about this Samara.

"How would I know," he asked. "I'm just looking for her. I need her for a mission."

"Oh sorry, you see Justicars abide this code, to deal with injustices, most time by lethal force," Dara said. "Which can be a problem, as everyone skirts the law in one way or another."

"Huh, if she's such a problem, why don't you just kick her off the planet," Tali asked.

"Justicars are like the Spectres. They go anywhere whenever but Justicars have to follow the laws unless it deals with corruption," Ragan said. "First thing Liara taught me when we were on the hunt for Saren."

"That and Justicars are Asari of great respect, no one would dare question their judgement, however because of their code, they are likely to cause a cross-species incident. Justicars are very powerful and will kill anyone. I heard that if they are detained for a day, they have to be released the next day or they have to kill people."

"Some code of cold blood murder," John said.

"Well, it's good thing we're looking for her help," Kaiden said.

"Take the cab to the spaceport. Samara is there. Spaceport D75-IE," Dara said while looking at the terminal.

Once they reached the space port, they began their search for Samara. Before they could search, a Volus bumped into Ragan, the former Spectre was fine but the Volus tumbled to the ground. His two Turian Bodyguards helped him up and the Volus took a breath and glared at him. "Watch where you're going, Human!"

Ragan quickly draws his gun and aims it at the Volus. "Don't disrespected a former Spectre." The Volus and the Turian bodyguards flinched when they heard Ragan said Spectre. They know what a Spectre will do. Looking at a Spectre wrong, your head is gone in one second without a second thought.

John frowned. "Likewise midget." Just as the Volus was about to walk away a voice called out.

"Where do you think you're going," the Asari asked. the Asari walked past the team and up to the Volus. She was purple, with what looked like a cop uniform, for a member for an only female race, she was quite masculine as her voice was rough. John gazed at the Turians, they looked like they were going to cause trouble, but the Asari stared them down hard and they suddenly backed down. John was impressed, she didn't back down from anyone.

"I'm taking my goods to Omega, Detective," the Volus said.

"You're not going anywhere, merchant. not until I solve this murder."

The Volus scoffed. "I have nothing to do with that. It was those mercenary thugs - Eclipse - you can't seen to get rid of."

"The victim was your business partner and I'm not ruling you out. You'll leave when I'm sure you're not a suspect. So until then, you are confined until further notice."

The Volus then lifted his finger. "What about that Justicar?! Everyone says that she's gone crazy and could start killing again! I need to leave," the Volus said nervously.

The Asari smirked but Ragan beat her to the punch. "A Justicar only kills the unjust, so I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, mister..."

"Pitne For," the Volus said.

"Find me in the station if you need me," Asari said. "And you need to stay out of our business."

"Sorry but as a former Spectre, I'm required to know this. After all you do have a Spectre near you," Ragan said while pointing at John.

The Asari went inside the building, while the volus huffed at his delay.

"Great, just great. We get the info from her I bet," Kaiden said. "But Pitne might have some more for us."

"Yep, I think we just found our fist clue or two clues to be more processed in the mind," John said. the team went inside to meet the detective, she was at her desk filling out police reports. She saw the team approaching and she resumed with her reports.

"Nice guns, try not to use them in my district," she said.

"Thanks for the warning though, a bit pointless for a Spectre," John said sitting down.

"Great, a smartass member of your group and a Justiciar in the same place, the galaxy likes to work me to the bone," she said with a scoff.

"Detective Anaya T'Sa, so tell me what a Spectre is doing here."

"We're here to take your Justicar off your hands," Ragan said.

Anaya looked at them. "If you're here to settle a score with her, take it somwhere else - I've got enough trouble here as it is," the detective said.

"We're here to recruit her for an upcoming mission," Tali said.

"Sounds important, Justicars usually work alone, but they are drawn to impossible causes. If you can get her out of my district, then we have a deal, she's at the crime scene."

"You're letting her into a crime scene," Kaiden asked.

"I'm a cop - I'll work with a Justicar all I can. Same with a Spectre or a former one. Besides she's been working on crime scenes longer than all of us combined."

"You seem anxious to get her out of here," John said.

The detective sighed. "My bosses want me to detain her. They're afraid she'll cause some cross-species incident. But her damn code won't let her be taken in. if I try it, I die the next day, since I have no interest in dying, I'll be thrilled to help you."

"She would kill a cop, doesn't seem just."

"She would defend an honest cop, but she would kill an army of dirty cops," the Asari said. "I admire her dedication, but her presence is still a problem, I need her gone."

"Your boss is sending you to certain death, you have the right to disobey."

"We can disobey? I never knew that. I shouldn't be on this mission then," Kaiden jokingly.

"We should remember that the next time John puts us in certain death situation," Tali was going along with Kaiden. "Which is twice a day."

"Time to do insubordination," Ragan joked.

"Most of the time, I'm not being stupid about it, can't say the same for the detective," John said, didn't get the joke.

"I'm a cop and I know my duty. I've been ordered to detain her and I will - unless you get her out of here, like now."

"HOw do I get to the crime scene," John asked.

"It's around the corner, just look for the police line. I'll send word you're coming," Anaya said. "Be careful. The local Eclipse mercs have been all over the back alleys lately." John nodded.

The team made thier way to the back allies of the spaceport. Around the corder they overheard Eclipse mercenaries deploying a squad to hunt down the Justicar. John peeked around the corner and saw a vanguard, three LOKI mechs, and soldier. "Get the rest of bravo team prepped. Alpha squad went after her twenty minutes ago, they've went dark in five minutes," the leader said.

"Looks like we're too late," Tali said.

"Maybe now, got your drone prepped," John asked. Tali nodded and activated Chatika. The drone floated to the mercs.

"A drone," one of them said. "What's a repair drone doing here?" As she came close to the drone, one of the LOKI mechs started to point its gun at the merc.

"Watch out," the leader said as the mech fired and killed on the mercs.

"Now," John ordered. The team came out of the corner and fired on the mercs. John lifted his hand and summoned a singularity field while Ragan quickly three a lift grenade at the mercs. Tali pointed her omni-tool at Chatika, and the drone exploded, causing the mercs to fly. The battle was quickly over. "Let's go."

The team passes some more police tape and opens the door, to see an Eclipse mercenary flying at the wall near them. The team looked up and see two Asari talking, an older one and younger one. "Those were my best troops," the lieutenant said in fear.

"Tell me what I need to know and I'll be gone from here," the voice said. "Where did you send her?"

"You think I would betray her? She would hurt me in ways you can't imagine," the young Asari said.

"A name Lieutenant. Your life depends on it."

"You can kill me, but one of us will take you down, Justicar." She growled. The older Asari grabs the young one in Eclipse armor and throws her to the ground. The Older Asari followed her, leaning from the room to glide down effortlessly with her biotics. The fallen Asari tried to crawl away but the Justicar shoved her down with a foot against the neck.

"What was the name of the ship she left on," she asked in a level, commanding tone.

"Go to Hell!" The merc strained.

The older woman shook her head, almost appearing saddened. "Find peace in the embrace of the goddess," she said solemnly. Her leg shifted suddenly and sickening crack filled the silence and the young Asari's body going limp.

Her gaze turned to John and the team. She was striking figure, clad in form-fitting leathers of dark red. A thick piece of jewelry was around her neck, something between a necklace and a choker, seemingly made of gold. While she didn't appear aged, for some reason she just felt older, wiser. She spoke.

"My name is Samara; I am a Justicar and servant of its code. My quarrel is with these Eclipse sisters, but I see three well-armed people before," she said. "Are we friend or foe?"

John looked at the battered body of the merc Samara just killed. "Friend, trust me," John said. "I'm going against suicidal odds and I need the best - that means you are part of it."

"I sense the turth in what you say and I'm humbled, but I seek a dangerous fugitive," she said. "Two of them. Ragan Kaiba is one of them." Ragan quickly looked at her and tried to walk out. "Don't even try. You killed many people in your time."

"Yeah, that is because I was a Spectre or it was due to military orders. Or when Cerberus burnt my village when I was twenty," Ragan said. "And besides, I've changed in this."

Samara looks at him and then sighed."The truth is there in your words. I have no presume to go after you." She then looks at John, "I am looking for a dangerous fugitive. I cornered her here, but the sisters smuggled her off-world. I must find the name of the ship she left on before the trail goes cold."

"I wish you were willing to go with the Human, Justicar," a voice said. It was the detective; she came in not very happy at this predicament. "I've been ordered to take you into custody if you won't leave."

"You risk a great deal following your orders, but fortunately I will not have to resist."

"How is that fortunate," Kaiden asked.

"I am allowed to cooperate with the law for one day, after that day, I must return to my investigation. But sometimes I am required to cooperate longer with the law if it deals with criminal activates or a rouge Spectre like Saren."

"I won't be able to release you that soon," the detective said.

"You won't be able to stop me."

"Maybe we can help find that ship for you," Tali said.

"Yeah, you get your clue, I get my recruit, the detective doesn't die, and the the Eclipse gang will be taken out," John said.

"The Volus merchant Pitne For is tied to this. Eclipse mercs are preparing to kill him," Samara said. "But you must hurry, otherwise I will not have a choice."

"Got it, we'll be quick," John said. Samara nodded and went with the detective. She looked back at the team.

"Thank you," she said. They were gone.

"Let's get to work," John ordered. The team went to look for Pitne For.


	94. Chapter 60: The Justiciar part 2

Chapter 60: The Justicar part 1

After the shocking revelation that Liara, an old comrade of the Normandy team, turned John's body over to Cerberus and Alliance, the team was split on whether to even trust her again. Tali of course believe Liara had betrayed them, betrayed John by giving his body to Cerberus and Alliance. Garrus was on the other side, believing Liara did what she had to. Kaiden, once he heard about what happened was disturbed, but wasn't going to condemn her so quickly. Jane and Ragan were staying out of it because they must have known something like this would have happened.

"You want us to forgive her," Tali asked. "She betrayed us."

Garrus frowned. "How can you say that Tali," he asked. "Liara had proven herself time and time again; hell she's even fought her own mother to the death."

"Damnit, Garrus, we all know what Cerberus is like, we fought them just as much as we did Saren and Sovereign," Tali hissed. Ragan quickly looked at the two with a mean look. "And she still gave John's body over to them!"

"She didn't have a choice, you would know if you'd just listen to her," Garrus said angrily. "Or would you rather have John stay in the coma or turned over to the Collectors to be the Reaper's slave?!" Tali glared at him.

"How dare you?! I went through hell when he was called dead two years ago," she growled.

"So did the rest of us, what makes you special? Oh, wait because you're screwing the boss," he said. Tali clenched her fist, this was about to escalate quickly. This was a disaster; they just got back together as a team, and this treated to tear the team apart. Kaiden didn't agree with what Liara did, but he understood. Kaiden got between them, to nip this problem in bud.

"Enough, both of you," Kaiden said. He looked at Garrus first. "That was a low blow, Garrus and you know it." Garrus looked away and Kaiden looked at Tali. "And Tali can you honestly say you wouldn't do the same?"

"I...," she said.

"The fact of the matter if we knew back then that John could be brought back to life, we would have joined because he meant something to each of us."

Tali lowered her head. "But it's Cerberus... no matter what... they will never let him go...," she said sadly.

"If Cerberus won't let him go, then we'll make them," Kaiden said firmly. "It's the least we can do, after everything he's done for us." Just then John and Ragan approached, and the team stiffened.

"Hey," John said.

"You... overheard everything," Kiaden asked.

"Yeah, I though I could not forgive her, but listening to you guys made me think...," John said. "Anything could have gone wrong, but it didn't, maybe Liara knew but still she tried, it's easy to get mad at her and yet I can't be angry with her, because in the end, I'm back." He went over to Tali and cupped her cheek. "And I'm staying..." Tali hugged him tightly, Kaiden sighed, they narrowly dodged a bullet there.

Garrus rubbed his head sheepishly. "Look, Tali about what I said... I'm..."

"Don't worry about it, Garrus..."

"I'll take to Liara, it has to be me," John said. "But now we need to find Samara. Kaiden, Ragan and Rookie you're with me."

**Ilium **

The team went to the commercial port to speak with Officer Dara. They then found Dara. "Can I help you with something," the Asari asked.

"I'm looking for an Asari Warrior that is a Justicar named Samara," John said.

Dara looked at John. "Wait, why," she asked. She then went pale. "Did she kill someone already?" John raised a brow, exactly what kind of person was this Justicar for Dara to have this kind of reaction. Now he was really curious about this Samara.

"How would I know," he asked. "I'm just looking for her. I need her for a mission."

"Oh sorry, you see Justicars abide this code, to deal with injustices, most time by lethal force," Dara said. "Which can be a problem, as everyone skirts the law in one way or another."

"Huh, if she's such a problem, why don't you just kick her off the planet," Tali asked.

"Justicars are like the Spectres. They go anywhere whenever but Justicars have to follow the laws unless it deals with corruption," Ragan said. "First thing Liara taught me when we were on the hunt for Saren."

"That and Justicars are Asari of great respect, no one would dare question their judgement, however because of their code, they are likely to cause a cross-species incident. Justicars are very powerful and will kill anyone. I heard that if they are detained for a day, they have to be released the next day or they have to kill people."

"Some code of cold blood murder," John said.

"Well, it's good thing we're looking for her help," Kaiden said.

"Take the cab to the spaceport. Samara is there. Spaceport D75-IE," Dara said while looking at the terminal.

Once they reached the space port, they began their search for Samara. Before they could search, a Volus bumped into Ragan, the former Spectre was fine but the Volus tumbled to the ground. His two Turian Bodyguards helped him up and the Volus took a breath and glared at him. "Watch where you're going, Human!"

Ragan quickly draws his gun and aims it at the Volus. "Don't disrespected a former Spectre." The Volus and the Turian bodyguards flinched when they heard Ragan said Spectre. They know what a Spectre will do. Looking at a Spectre wrong, your head is gone in one second without a second thought.

John frowned. "Likewise midget." Just as the Volus was about to walk away a voice called out.

"Where do you think you're going," the Asari asked. the Asari walked past the team and up to the Volus. She was purple, with what looked like a cop uniform, for a member for an only female race, she was quite masculine as her voice was rough. John gazed at the Turians, they looked like they were going to cause trouble, but the Asari stared them down hard and they suddenly backed down. John was impressed, she didn't back down from anyone.

"I'm taking my goods to Omega, Detective," the Volus said.

"You're not going anywhere, merchant. not until I solve this murder."

The Volus scoffed. "I have nothing to do with that. It was those mercenary thugs - Eclipse - you can't seen to get rid of."

"The victim was your business partner and I'm not ruling you out. You'll leave when I'm sure you're not a suspect. So until then, you are confined until further notice."

The Volus then lifted his finger. "What about that Justicar?! Everyone says that she's gone crazy and could start killing again! I need to leave," the Volus said nervously.

The Asari smirked but Ragan beat her to the punch. "A Justicar only kills the unjust, so I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, mister..."

"Pitne For," the Volus said.

"Find me in the station if you need me," Asari said. "And you need to stay out of our business."

"Sorry but as a former Spectre, I'm required to know this. After all you do have a Spectre near you," Ragan said while pointing at John.

The Asari went inside the building, while the volus huffed at his delay.

"Great, just great. We get the info from her I bet," Kaiden said. "But Pitne might have some more for us."

"Yep, I think we just found our fist clue or two clues to be more processed in the mind," John said. the team went inside to meet the detective, she was at her desk filling out police reports. She saw the team approaching and she resumed with her reports.

"Nice guns, try not to use them in my district," she said.

"Thanks for the warning though, a bit pointless for a Spectre," John said sitting down.

"Great, a smartass member of your group and a Justiciar in the same place, the galaxy likes to work me to the bone," she said with a scoff.

"Detective Anaya T'Sa, so tell me what a Spectre is doing here."

"We're here to take your Justicar off your hands," Ragan said.

Anaya looked at them. "If you're here to settle a score with her, take it somwhere else - I've got enough trouble here as it is," the detective said.

"We're here to recruit her for an upcoming mission," Tali said.

"Sounds important, Justicars usually work alone, but they are drawn to impossible causes. If you can get her out of my district, then we have a deal, she's at the crime scene."

"You're letting her into a crime scene," Kaiden asked.

"I'm a cop - I'll work with a Justicar all I can. Same with a Spectre or a former one. Besides she's been working on crime scenes longer than all of us combined."

"You seem anxious to get her out of here," John said.

The detective sighed. "My bosses want me to detain her. They're afraid she'll cause some cross-species incident. But her damn code won't let her be taken in. if I try it, I die the next day, since I have no interest in dying, I'll be thrilled to help you."

"She would kill a cop, doesn't seem just."

"She would defend an honest cop, but she would kill an army of dirty cops," the Asari said. "I admire her dedication, but her presence is still a problem, I need her gone."

"Your boss is sending you to certain death, you have the right to disobey."

"We can disobey? I never knew that. I shouldn't be on this mission then," Kaiden jokingly.

"We should remember that the next time John puts us in certain death situation," Tali was going along with Kaiden. "Which is twice a day."

"Time to do insubordination," Ragan joked.

"Most of the time, I'm not being stupid about it, can't say the same for the detective," John said, didn't get the joke.

"I'm a cop and I know my duty. I've been ordered to detain her and I will - unless you get her out of here, like now."

"HOw do I get to the crime scene," John asked.

"It's around the corner, just look for the police line. I'll send word you're coming," Anaya said. "Be careful. The local Eclipse mercs have been all over the back alleys lately." John nodded.

The team made thier way to the back allies of the spaceport. Around the corder they overheard Eclipse mercenaries deploying a squad to hunt down the Justicar. John peeked around the corner and saw a vanguard, three LOKI mechs, and soldier. "Get the rest of bravo team prepped. Alpha squad went after her twenty minutes ago, they've went dark in five minutes," the leader said.

"Looks like we're too late," Tali said.

"Maybe now, got your drone prepped," John asked. Tali nodded and activated Chatika. The drone floated to the mercs.

"A drone," one of them said. "What's a repair drone doing here?" As she came close to the drone, one of the LOKI mechs started to point its gun at the merc.

"Watch out," the leader said as the mech fired and killed on the mercs.

"Now," John ordered. The team came out of the corner and fired on the mercs. John lifted his hand and summoned a singularity field while Ragan quickly three a lift grenade at the mercs. Tali pointed her omni-tool at Chatika, and the drone exploded, causing the mercs to fly. The battle was quickly over. "Let's go."

The team passes some more police tape and opens the door, to see an Eclipse mercenary flying at the wall near them. The team looked up and see two Asari talking, an older one and younger one. "Those were my best troops," the lieutenant said in fear.

"Tell me what I need to know and I'll be gone from here," the voice said. "Where did you send her?"

"You think I would betray her? She would hurt me in ways you can't imagine," the young Asari said.

"A name Lieutenant. Your life depends on it."

"You can kill me, but one of us will take you down, Justicar." She growled. The older Asari grabs the young one in Eclipse armor and throws her to the ground. The Older Asari followed her, leaning from the room to glide down effortlessly with her biotics. The fallen Asari tried to crawl away but the Justicar shoved her down with a foot against the neck.

"What was the name of the ship she left on," she asked in a level, commanding tone.

"Go to Hell!" The merc strained.

The older woman shook her head, almost appearing saddened. "Find peace in the embrace of the goddess," she said solemnly. Her leg shifted suddenly and sickening crack filled the silence and the young Asari's body going limp.

Her gaze turned to John and the team. She was striking figure, clad in form-fitting leathers of dark red. A thick piece of jewelry was around her neck, something between a necklace and a choker, seemingly made of gold. While she didn't appear aged, for some reason she just felt older, wiser. She spoke.

"My name is Samara; I am a Justicar and servant of its code. My quarrel is with these Eclipse sisters, but I see three well-armed people before," she said. "Are we friend or foe?"

John looked at the battered body of the merc Samara just killed. "Friend, trust me," John said. "I'm going against suicidal odds and I need the best - that means you are part of it."

"I sense the turth in what you say and I'm humbled, but I seek a dangerous fugitive," she said. "Two of them. Ragan Kaiba is one of them." Ragan quickly looked at her and tried to walk out. "Don't even try. You killed many people in your time."

"Yeah, that is because I was a Spectre or it was due to military orders. Or when Cerberus burnt my village when I was twenty," Ragan said. "And besides, I've changed in this."

Samara looks at him and then sighed."The truth is there in your words. I have no presume to go after you." She then looks at John, "I am looking for a dangerous fugitive. I cornered her here, but the sisters smuggled her off-world. I must find the name of the ship she left on before the trail goes cold."

"I wish you were willing to go with the Human, Justicar," a voice said. It was the detective; she came in not very happy at this predicament. "I've been ordered to take you into custody if you won't leave."

"You risk a great deal following your orders, but fortunately I will not have to resist."

"How is that fortunate," Kaiden asked.

"I am allowed to cooperate with the law for one day, after that day, I must return to my investigation. But sometimes I am required to cooperate longer with the law if it deals with criminal activates or a rouge Spectre like Saren."

"I won't be able to release you that soon," the detective said.

"You won't be able to stop me."

"Maybe we can help find that ship for you," Tali said.

"Yeah, you get your clue, I get my recruit, the detective doesn't die, and the the Eclipse gang will be taken out," John said.

"The Volus merchant Pitne For is tied to this. Eclipse mercs are preparing to kill him," Samara said. "But you must hurry, otherwise I will not have a choice."

"Got it, we'll be quick," John said. Samara nodded and went with the detective. She looked back at the team.

"Thank you," she said. They were gone.

"Let's get to work," John ordered. The team went to look for Pitne For.


	95. Chapter 61: Angel of Feros

Chapter 61: Angel of Feros

John, Ragan, Jacob, and Miranda was in the conference room waiting for Samara to brief her on the mission. When the older Asari came on board, she turned a lot of heads, for the women it was just how breathtakingly elegant she is and for men, it was what Samara was wearing while the women glared at them for being 'pigs'. Samara on the other hand didn't care much, though living for centuries must have given her experience on dealing with the stares. John had to chuckle Samara was the exact opposite of Liara when she first came aboard. Samara came in and bowed at the four of them, Jacob went up to her and shook her hand, while Miranda rolled her eyes. Ragan gave a Japanese bow of accepting her in the group.

"Welcome to the Normandy SR-2, Samara. We studied your profile extensively," Jacob said. "With your skills, you'll make an excellent addition to the team."

"Provided of course she can follow orders," Miranda said bluntly. "I hope your code won't be a problem." Jacob paled expecting Samara to be offended but the older Asari simply nodded.

"Don't work, I have pledged myself to John's cause before I entered the ship, as long the cause is honorable and just there should not be a problem Ms. Lawson," Samara said. "And thank you Mr. Taylor, while I do not agree with your organization, I will be prepared for whatever we encounter. I just hope the Alliance and Cerberus don't get at each other necks."

"Kelly set up your quarters in the Observation Room," Ragan said. "If any time you need us, just call us by EDI."

Samara nodded. "Ah, room overlooking the great void, perfect for my deitations, you have my thanks." She left the room and Miranda started to walk out also, rubbed his head sheepishly.

"Sorry Staff Commander, Lieutenant Commander, Miri can be a little blunt at times..."

"If you ask me, she needs a chill pill, I've never seen someone so up-tight," Ragan said. "What does Miranda do for fun?"

Jacob scratched his head. "Well... she liked to dance when she was little, and she loved movies, but nowadays she eat, sleep and live for Cerberus," he said. "I've asked her to relax and don't be such a workaholic, but..."

John snapped his fingers. "A date!"

Jacob looked at him. "Commander?"

"You should ask Miranda on a date, maybe if she has some fun, she'll lighten up for once," John said. Jacob looked at Ragan.

"Sorry but she don't like me. She likes your cousin," Jacob said while pointing at Ragan. "But I understand why he won't date anyone from Cerberus. But I'll see...," before he could finish, John's omni-tool beeped.

"Sorry, got to take this, why don't you think about it," John said walking out. As he walked out, John looked at who sent it and went out to the port.

**Nos Astra Dock**

John went out to the cafe, and waits for someone and saw an Asari approach him. An Asari he recognized. It was Shiala T'Soni, Liara's aunt and Benezia's younger sister; they mete when John and his team were rescuing the colonists on the planet Feros from the sentient plant called the Thorian. At one point she served Saren, the ex-Spectre that would go on to become a slave to Sovereign, a Reaper. When she was saved, she decided to stay and help rebuild as a way to repent for what she's done. She smiles, "Hello Commander."

"Shiala, hey there," John asked. "So how's Zhu's Hope?"

"Fine, fine John, Zhu's Hope has be growing well due to the leadership of Julie, Lizbeth, and Jeong's assistant that moved about a year ago, Hugo Strange," she said. "We've have built three to four settlements on Feros."

"Great, and how about you?"

"I've been fine, I'm leader of the Militia and we deal with threats from pirates or slavers," she said. John looked at her strange, she said everything was fine, but her body language said differently something he picked up from spending time with Tali. Something was wrong.

"Shiala, what's going on," he asked bluntly. "This isn't a friendly visit..." The Asari sighed and removed her gloves, John's eyes went wide. "Shiala, your arm is green..."

"Yes, thanks to the Thorian."

John frowned. The Thorian, a real nasty piece of work, with its mind-controlling and telepathic abilities and a massive sensory network. it releases spores into the air that allow the Thorian to control those who inhale them, using pain to control their behaviour. These 'thralls' then tend to the Thorian and obey its will. ExoGeni, the company funding the colony, knew about its abilities and used the people as test subjects in their sick little science project. John and his team dealt with it two years ago, at least he thought so. "Is the Thorian...?"

Shiala shook her head. "No, you killed the Thorian two years ago, otherwise we would still be under its control no this is a side-effect of the Thorian's death," she said. "The colonists began having headaches or muscle spasms, similar to what they experience while under the Thorian's control, when a colonist goes near a former Thorian victim, they could feel the victim's head sensations or pain. The green skin is mine... and my biotics become unstable and uncontrollable and it is spreading... We went to Baria Frontiers for treatment, but..."

John's brow went up. "But?"

"We should have read the fine print... when we set up the contract, we also signed for invasive and potentially harmful medical tests."

"So you came to me, why not Liara? She's an info broker you know," John said.

"She guided me to you so I can talk to Ragan, she said he was the best person for this situation," she said. John groaned, Liara decided to dump her aunt's problem on Ragan's lap while she worked on finding the Shadow Broker.

"That girl... okay, I'll get Ragan down here." He said. A moment later, Ragan comes up with some documents. John and Ragan then went to the Baria Frontier office, to look for an Erinya Koas, an Asari who gave out the contract in the first place. Ragan walked up to the Asari.

"What do you want, Human?" It could have been his imagination, but Ragan could have sworn he heard the venom when she called him Human.

"I'm here to give you legal documentations that you have no right to conduct harmful tests on the colonists of Zhu's Hope. You gave a contract to an Asari named Shaila T'Soni, correct," he asked.

Erinya scoffed. "Oh her, the one working for the Human colony," she said. "I will tell you, what I told her, if she didn't want that procedure she should have read the contract better."

"They were in pain, some were bedridden, and they were desperate so excuse me if they weren't in the liberty to read your damn contract," Ragan said.

"Typical alien response, you come to us and then complain when it doesn't suit you," Erinya said. "I suggest you leave, your time is short enough, don't waste time bothering me."

Ragan crossed his arms. "I got all the time in the world; I'm not leaving until you change the contracts when I have read your contract and found no such thing as extra tests."

"What do you mean, I wrote the contract... I remember what the contract says. 'If the colonists weren't willing to abide by this contract, then they have the right to not sign it until another contract taking its place or rewritten.' So please find that in your copy."

Ragan smiled and showed her the copy, "It's not there. For some reason, you broke the law for the Contract Interactions of Gallus in 2135 subsection 3 paragraph 3 sentence two, 'All contracts must have a legal bind on them stating that if the person or people are unable to sigh has to be stated otherwise, the contract is void.' Why insist on the tests illegally? What value could they hold?"

"It's not your concern, Human," John was starting to lose his patience when Ragan whistled to him; the Asari's attitude was starting to get him. He took a deep breath, one wrong move and he could make everything worse. So he just walked up to Ragan.

"What's your problem, sir," John said.

"Spectre, this woman has broke the law of Contract Interactions of Gallus in 2135. I'm trying to be civil and she's making it hard. So I'll ask you Erinya, what is your problem?"

Erinya glared at him, and Ragan was taken aback, her eyes held great hatred for non-Asari, but also great sadness. It was eerie, as it was similar to his eyes. "My problem?! My problem is you aliens, the galaxy would be a better place if nobody but the Asari dragged themselves from the muck," she said. "The Turians shooting everything ins sight, the Salarians unleashed the Rachni and the Krogan on the galaxy, Batarians take slaves out of all the people they want, Vorcha have made it impossible to find good technology for ships, Geth have attacked the Citadel, Quarians have created the rebellious Geth, Krogan have attacked the Council worlds, Rachni started a war that nearly destroyed the galaxy, you Humans think you can turn the galaxy into your damn playground, and who suffers for your stupidity, the Asari, my people!" Ragan was speechless, the pain in her eyes, it was just similar, it was his, because that's how he felt about the Batarians and Geth, when they took nearly everything from him.

"What happened? It sounds personal..." Tears ran from her eyes as she sat back in the chair in the corner.

"My bondmate, Natal nearly died by Geth if someone didn't save her. And my daughter Oyra, died on the Citadel during the Geth Attack. My bondmate's neck was nearly broken, while she was working her post at Citadel Control," she said. "My daughter was horribly mutilated by Saren's Krogan allies, when I saw her body I couldn't even recognize her face. She worked at the embassy, she was respectable member of society like her mother, and yet she was thrown away like trash." Ragan lowered his head, another life ruined because of Saren got the Citadel first. He sometimes forgot, that for every victory there is also loss, that affects somebody. "That is why aliens will never be an ally, all they can do is provide useful data."

"I'm sorry for your loss, I know your pain...," John and Ragan said together.

"You know nothing Humans," Erinya growled.

"I lost my father when I was two years old," Ragan said. "Geth attacked Tokyo, Japan thanks to a rogue spectre named Tadil Fudi, a Salarian that was trying to destroy humanity."

"I'm from a small colony in the Traverse called Mindoir," John said. "The Batarians attacked, they were making a slave run, and they killed everyone who resisted." The Asari looked at him. "My family was a lot like yours, my stepdad was an engineer, mom was a teacher, my half blooded sister was only five years old and my step sisters were with the Alliance and yet they too were also thrown away like trash.

"We could have become just like you, hateful and bitter at the world, but my family would be ashamed of what I would have become like same with my cousin," he said. "So ask yourself this, would you want your daughter see you like this... willing to hurt others as much as you have been hurt?"

"I'm not... I didn't... oh...," Erinya slumped in her chair, with tears in her eyes. Ragan offered his hand and pulled her up. "You're right Humans, they wouldn't... I'll send an amended contract, no more tests," she walked away. "There's enough grief in the galaxy... I don't need to add to it... And I hope I'm not going to jail."

"No, the second sentence is 'If the contract doesn't have the information that is required, the person who wrote the contract has 24 hours to replace or rewrite the contract.' So no," Ragan said.

"Thank you...," John said.

Ragan and John went back to Shiala, when he got there, she was bouncing on her feet happily. Erinya must have called her about the changes. "Ragan, you did it, Baria Frontier sent us a new contract with no tests," she said. "Ragan, you saved Zhu's Hope, but I wonder is always like this? Old problems breeding new ones... isn't anything just fixed?"

"Sometimes, but you can make a difference, not everyone can," Ragan said.

Shiala chuckled softly. "I suppose you're right, thank you Ragan."


	96. Chapter 62: Memories

Chapter 62: Memories

It was a quite day on the Normandy; Ragan was in his room meditating and remembering old days. Although he was reluctant to admit it, he was quite impressed on fast he would forget about what happened over 10 years ago. Add that to the time he spent on the Normandy, and the mission to get to the Collector Base, didn't feel like so suicidal anymore but he still had some problems. John may be lot of things, reckless, naive fool and an ass, but the man was surprisingly efficient and that is what made Ragan forget about his village being burnt.

** 17 years ago - Hayabusa Village**

_Cold day as November was coming into end and December was about to come. Ragan was sitting outside of his hut as he looked over the village and see everyone doing well to help others. He gave a deep breath and looked at his commanding officer, which was his wife, Sergeant Gōjasuna Furawā, and his two daughters, Kitana and Mileena. He always loved to see them._

_A shuttle is heard and Ragan quickly looks at the symbol on it, Cerberus. He knew about Cerberus all the time during the First Contact War, being a black ops. But if Cerberus is here, then something is not going to be going to plan. Ragan looks at his wife and nods to her._

_"Ima, iku," he said in Japanese._

_"Hai," his wife says. She quickly grabs the kids and guides them inside the hut then closes the sliding door._

_Ragan gets up and the villagers, which is all aliens, stop and go in their huts. He then walks up to shuttle after it lands and some of the soldiers come out. "Can I help you, Cerberus?"_

_"Yes, by laws of the Terra Firma, this village has to be destroyed," said one of the troops. "Destroying this village due to alien sources here. All aliens must be placed under arrest before we destroy the village. If they resist, we have orders to shoot to kill." He quickly grabs his weapon and places a new thermal clip in the gun._

_"I'm sorry but that will not happen. My village, not yours. I have rights of this village and you have the right to leave before I kill you. I have been given this land by inheiratence and you are trespassing. I suggest you leave," Ragan said. One of the soldiers got up and tried to hit Ragan in the head but Ragan quickly took the soldier's arm and cut it off with a quick draw attack. While screaming in agony, the soldiers then started to fire by Ragan quickly trapped them in singularity field and then shot them. "I warned you and you didn't heed my warning. Now suffer."_

_"Burn it, now," the soldier said. One of the troopers came up with a flamethrower on his back and started burning the village. The first building that was burnt was Ragan's house with his family in it. After a few minutes, most of the village was burnt down with a lot of Cerberus corpse on the grass land. He then saw what the pain and tried to get some of the people out but failed when Cerberus quickly started dropping small bombs._

_After two years of his life living in the village, it was destroyed. Nothing was left but burnt bodies and burnt wood. Ragan then tried to forget about this by placing a sword in the ground with a helmet on top and a stone that was engraved. The stone engrave said. "Let this be a memory for now one until death."_

**NOW**

Ragan then heard a knock and he got out of his meditation. "Open," he said while trying to shake the horrible memory off. The door opens and Miranda walks in. "What do you want?"

"I've been thinking," she said.

"That's never good," he said. "You didn't think when John told you about the people that we were recruiting and now you start thinking."

"Yeah, thanks to Jacob nagging me about it... how would you like to go out with me," she asked.

Ragan looked at her and closed his eyes for a few seconds. "Uh... I...," he stammered. That was a surprise, Miranda's never been direct before, most of the time she was in the background doing with the flow of things and working until time to sleep. He shook his head and regained his composure. "You're thinking about a date, while we're recruiting people for a possible suicide mission?"

"Um, yeah," she said rubbing her head.

"I can't and won't. I have too much work to do and besides, I wouldn't date a Cerberus personal at all after what they did to my village," he said taking a sip of his water.

"What do you mean," she asked.

"Seventeen years ago, Cerberus came to my village and had 'orders' from Terra Firma to arrest all aliens in my village. Since I didn't like that, I disagreed due to my views of aliens are to be our allies. After attacking some of the soldiers, they burnt my village down with flamethrowers. The first house they burnt was my house," he said angrily.

"I see what you mean. Never trust Cerberus," Miranda asked.

"Nope and never will until Hell freezes over."

"I came to ask you on a date because Jacob said that I need to smile," she said. "Why won't you accept it?"

"Because of what happened. I'm working with Cerberus due to this truce and I don't like it. I know your kind. Always sneaking a way to find something to blame us then attack us like you did with the Quarian live ship."

"I see what you want, but I need to know if you trust me," she said bluntly. Ragan looked at her before spitting his water out.

"WHAT?! Dafuq did you say?"

"I asked if you trust me."

Ragan looks at the floor and then looks at the ceiling. "If I trusted you, I wouldn't have been so damn strict on you like I am always." He then looked at her, "If you quit Cerberus at the end of this mission, then yes I will trust you but if you don't then I will give evidence of illegal experiments that Cerberus was doing over the years of this truce, including the control chip you wanted to install in my cousins head."

Miranda looked at him with wide eyes, 'He knew about that? But how?' She then saw Ragan back in mediation. "How did you know about that," she asked.

"I know because I was the spy for the Council. A spy to make sure that nothing went wrong with your Lazarus Project. Good name by the way, named after the man that died and came back to life by Jesus Christ in the book of John in the Holy Bible. But next time, make sure that you don't add crucial remarks about the project needing to have more funds. I know you wanted to change him. Change his love life. Cerberus just hates aliens like Terra Firma. Let me tell you something, you change anyone that is family and a good friend to me, I will hunt you down and kill you with the hidden blades I have stored in on this ship; then I will clone you and kill all your clones and repeat until satisfied."

"That won't happen," Miranda said with fear. She was scared about Ragan but this just showed how dark he is. So dark, even the Ice Queen herself was scared.


	97. Chapter 63: The Assassin part 1

Chapter 63: The Assassin part 1

John went down to the Crew deck to see Miranda, he wanted to see if the rumors were true, that the ice queen of the Normandy was defrosted. After Ragan left, Jacob and Miranda went on a date - Jacob listened to Ragan about that. John crept his head around the corner; there she was eating her food. Nothing yet, but then one of the crew walked passed, she... smiled at them. John blinked, he couldn't believe it; Miranda was actually smiling, usually the most you can expect from Miranda was the smug smirked, the annoyed scoff or one of her favorites, the glare of doom. He had to test the waters to be sure, John walked towards her.

"Hey, Miri," John said with a smile. Miranda glared at him. 'Okay, a little thawed, not defrosted.' He looked at her, who had the evil eye. "What's with the evil eye?"

"What did you call me," she asked.

John rubbed his head. "Uh, Miri," he said sheepishly

"Don't," she said. John smirked.

"I see, so only Jacob can call you that," he asked.

Miranda rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Are you here to just aggravate me," she asked annoyed. And just like that, she was back to normal.

"Just came to see if you had a good time, with Jacob. I heard Ragan rejected you," he said.

Miranda blushed and went back to eating. "Why do you care? I'm Cerberus. You're like Ragan, hate Cerberus for our actions," she said after taking a bite of some of her breakfast burrito.

"Yeah, you're part of Cerberus and I'm like my cousin, but you're also a member of my crew and your ass is on the line as much as mine," John said. "You know I don't trust Cerberus, but I can at least say I trust you." Miranda looked at him with a surprised looked. 'Great, now that is what I get,' John thought.

"I... Thank you, I may not agree with your methods or Ragan's, but I can at least respect it, even if you are saving a life like Veetor," she said. John nodded. "Why did you try to get me to date your antisocial cousin?"

"He may be like that towards you but you have to prove yourself to him, and one of the proves he wants to see is you quitting Cerberus. Everyone needs a break once in a while and a little bird told me you needed to break of your workaholic habit," he said. "Life's too short, after all."

"Thank you for that," she said with a smile. "I understand why. Try to keep the crew's mind clear for work and clear for breaks."

"That and plus, you saw what life is like. You can't just be in your room writing reports to TIM," he said before walking away to start the next mission.

The team made it to the shipping lane, to meet with the contact. it was time to meet up with his next recruits. John had chosen Zaeed, Ragan, and Samara to come along, he really wanted to see what a Justicar could do in battle and might help Ragan with biotic explosions and Zaeed for support. They approached a purple Asari, typing at her terminal.

"Seryna," John asked.

"Who want to know," she said. 'Feisty, I like it. But don't get any ideas John, you have Tali.'

"A Justicar, merc, former Spectre, and Spectre," Ragan said. "We need info on one of my old friends and our recruits, Thane Krios."

Seryna looked over to her co-worker. "Tana, cover for me," she said. "Walk with me, we can talk Ragan." They walked to the cabs. "Yeah I know Krios, I passed him some info, but I didn't hire him. What do you want to know?"

"Where is he, for one," Zaeed said but Ragan calmly raised his hand and shook his head.

"I need to find him. Did he say who his contract is and where," Ragan asked.

"I can tell you, but you won't stop him. When he contacted me, I checked on him. The man never gives up on the hunt," she said. "I ran security for Nassana Dantius," John and Ragan's eyes went wide, "until I found out she was having people killed to cover up her secrets."

John palmed his face. "That bitch again?"

Seryna raised a brow. "So, you know of her?"

"I was the one that authorized C-Sec to arrest her after we found out that her sister was merc and she paid a fee to keep the mouth shut," Ragan said as he shook his head. "Evil she is."

**TWO YEARS AGO - CITADEL EMBASSIES**

_John went back to the Citadel to face Nassana, the mission was a hoax, a glorified assassination mission to eliminate her sister from ruining their family. And John fell for it hook, line, sinker; he felt angry, but mostly at himself he should have never agreed to the mission. He was so emotional that he forgotten that not all people could be trusted. A mistake that will not happen again, he made it to the Citadel Lounge where some C-Sec officers saluted him. There was Dantius, sitting smugly and sipping her tea._

_"Sir, we have orders to arrest her. Spectre authorization," said the Turian C-Sec officer._

_"Granted," Ragan popped his knuckles. John gave a nod to indicate to follow his order._

_John approached her. "You conniving little bitch," John growled._

_"Whatever do you mean, Commander," Nassana was playing him._

_"Don't play dumb. We know that Dahlia was a pirate and that you wanted her gone," Tali slammer her fist on the table._

_Nassana smiled smugly, "And so the truth comes out, it's not personal. But I couldn't let Dahlia ruin us."_

_"But she was your sister," Jane was looking at her with mean eyes._

_Nassana scoffed, "And? Do you know how many sisters I have within my clan? Enough where losing one won't make a difference, as long as the family apparatus is intact. Now here, a little something for your 'support'," she pressed a few buttons on her omni-tool. "I hope to do business with you in the future."_

_John scoffed, "Don't count on it."_

_"Nassana Dantius, you are hereby under arrest for dealing with terrorists. Breaking Council Law "Anti-Cerberus of 2181 section five paragraph four subsection 4: "Any one that deals with money with a terrorist or mercenary group is automatically placed under arrest and any rewards given to the people that have done the job is collected at evidence," Ragan motioned two C-Sec officers to get behind her. "I suggest you give up or I will kill you."_

_"Fine, you may take me," one of the C-Sec officers grabs Nassana's arms and places handcuffs on her. The two officers leave the room. "She won't be able to escape. If she does, I know an assassin named Thane Krios to kill her."_

**NOW**

"Yeah, and know her sister too... if you know what I mean...," John said.

"I heard about that, I knew her sister's death was no accident," she said. "So she's just getting what she deserve."

"An assassin that kills the unjust, truly the galaxy loves irony," Samara said.

"It does," Seryna said. "I'm sure that Ragan hired him but then that would make it impossible for he didn't know about this."

"YOu worked there, any idea what the opposition is like," John asked.

"Eclipse mercs, hi-tech killers, undisciplined, but well-equiped. They don't care who they kill as long as they get paid."

"A bunch of stupid kids with new shiny toys, I almost feel bad for them," Zaeed said.

"Thane will still have a reception waiting for him. He didn't seem worried," Seryna said.

"You don't know Thane. He is the best of the best assassins. He is like a Earth Ninja like myself, but he is deadlier than me. But not ruthless. He can get in small spaces and use that to his advantage like I do all the time," Ragan said. "In fact, he was one of my masters that taught me how to use the shadows."

"Like Ragan said, he doesn't due to being a professional. Most professionals don't," Zaeed said.

"Where is he? We need to get there," Ragan said.

"Dantius towers, I know the area, so I can get you there."

"Why help us," Samara asked.

"Ragan, you didn't," Seryna said before seeing Ragan shake his head. "If he didn't tell, I'm not telling you why."

"A year ago, she was contacted by Thane Krios to find out where Nassana was at but used an alias name for her. Seryna contacted me due to our history of finding out where Cerberus Bases were at in the Terminus Systems while hunting Saren," Ragan said. "I was looking into the matter of making sure that Cerberus stayed in the Terminus Systems by Rear Admiral Kahoku, who is now dead. Anyway, thanks to her help, I owe her but she also owed me when Krios contacted her because she thought it was someone that wanted to kill her. Krios has a repetation to kill the people that he associated with."

"That and I own Thane, that bitch killed a lot of my friends, because her paranoia," she said. "Plus, I feel like I can trust you."

"When should we go," John asked.

"Night time because that is when all the mercs and shifts change."

John and the team had to wait until night that was when the security at the tower was the most lax. The cab made its way to Dantius Towers; Ilium was different sight at night, with cars flying though the air, it was truly alive more so than any time of the day. The cab joined with the traffic. "The towers are heavily guarded and you find more resistances closer to the pent house."

"More fun for Ragan," John said with a smirk. "Because he will being getting to Thane before us."

"Hmm," Seryna hummed. The cab turned to the right, and there was Dantius Towers, just like most of the buildings in Ilium, it stood as a monument of the wealth and power of the elites of the galaxy. Seryna scoffed. "Home sweet home; get up to the second tower and cross the bridge to get to the pent house."

"Got it, open the door," Ragan said. Seryna pressed a button and the door opened. Ragan grabbed the edges of the cab's door and then jumped out. Before he lands, he quickly uses the chain kunia to use like a grapple hook, swinging to an open vent.

"Set her down," John said. The cab was sat down on the pad and the team got out. John looked up, the tower was huge, and with so many floors it would be tough looking for Thane. He was smart to have Ragan look ahead while John looked on the current floor they will be moving. From what he read, Thane was a master infiltrator that specialized in quick and clean kills; get in and out without being seen. Meaning he won't appear unless he wants to, which meant they had to get to Dantius first or at least try to.

"One more thing, there are no automatic defences and traps, just focus on anything moving," John nodded.

"Incoming," Zaeed said. the squad quickly runs into a bunch of security mechs chasing panicked Salarian construction workers. two of them turn their way. John shoots the glass and Samara pulls them while Zaeed shoots them apart with his assault rifle. John freezes the LOKI mech and threw it against the wall. The team went in and checked the bodies.

"Such as waste," Samara said as she shook her head.

"Nassana was always a ruthless bitch," John said. "But this is just pointless slaughter."

"John, we got a live one," Zaeed said. Samara and John walked to him and saw a fallen Salarian bleeding greatly. "He ain't going to last much longer." John patched him up with medi-gel and helped him up.

"Thank you," the Salarian said. He looked at the dead Salarians and over to them. He kneeled over them and said a little prayer in the Salarian language.

"Why would Nassana do this," John asked.

"I don't know, we were just night workers coming in for work, and then we saw them and then the shooting started," the worker said. "My friends... all gone..."

"Without warning," Samara asked.

"She wanted us rounded up, the mercs said there was no time and so she ordered them to wipe us out, my friends were jumping off ledges just to escape the dogs," he said. "Everyone screaming... please find the other workers."

"We will," John said. "I have someone in the vents right now. I'll radio him to keep an eye out for more workers. You should get out of here." The worker left. Zaeed went to the door controls. the Team went through the door and took cover. LOKI and FENRIS mechs made up the bulk of the opposition. John launched the mechs with his singularity field, while Samara blew them away with her throw. Zaeed loaded his disruptor ammo and gave sniper support, he fired on the mercs, stripping them of their shields. He then got out a small orange spherical object and threw it at them. The merc screamed in agony as he lit up like a bonfire, more of them came around the cover, firing at the team. They went to cover, Samara pulled them off their feet and Zaeed threw more inferno grenades. Then one of the mercs was quickly taken out of their view and a scream was heard from the vents. John sent out his warp fields and the pull field exploded sending them flying. When it was down, they reached the ramp at the end of the level and went to the second level. "Ragan, come in."

"Yeah," his voice was heard on the comm link.

"We just got some troubling news. Nassana is killing her workers. Keep an eye out for any of them."

"Got it," Ragan said. "Oh, got some news. Thane is about halfway to the pent house right now. You need to hurry."

John and Samara then entered the room while Zaeed stayed back to make sure some of the mercs from the lower levels didn't come up. After a few seconds, he catched up with the team and heard some of the mercs talking.

"Hey, I think he went in there," one of them said.

"Well go get him," a female voice said.

The man scoffed. "You go."

"Get your fucking ass in there, Nassana's not paying you to stand around and try to look pretty."

"Fine... but I...," the sentence was cut off thanks to a gunshot.

"What the..." the woman said. Another shot was heard as the team went out in the open. They found two blue suns mercs on the ground with holes in their heads. Zaeed bent down and checked the bodies.

"Looks like our man or Ragan was here," he said. "Killed by shredder rounds."

"That's not Ragan's work," John said before seeing something darted off in the vents.

"Thane knows how to pick his ammo," Zaeed said. More enemies came to see what the noise was.

"Zaeed, admire his carnage later," he said pulling out his Hydra. as the mercs came around the corner, Samara and Zaeed pushed them back with concussive shot and biotic throws. John pulled the trigger and multiple missiles flew at the enemies' direction. the mercs were blown back by the explosion. A vanguard came up pass them, reinforced by LOKI mechs, Zaeed loaded his disruptor ammo into his M-15 Vindicator and went to town on the mechs. The vanguard threw a warp field at the Justicar, but Samara just causally knocks it away and countered with her throw and knocked him off the ledge. Samara got the door open and in it were more Salarians. Then a vent cover on the ceiling opens up and Ragan jumps out while aiming his pistol at the Salarians.

"Please don't shoot! We'll go," one of them said.

"Hey look, they're not Eclipse," another one said. "Are you here to help us?"

"It's one reason we're here, come out. It's safe enough," Ragan said. He puts his M-12 Locus up and looks at John.

"Thank you we're in your debt," one of them said after he bows.

"I'm looking for someone, not a merc, he's on his own," John said.

"You must be talking about the Drell," a Salarian said. "After he killed those two mercs, he locked us in here."

"The assassin wanted you safe, how strange," Samara said.

"Assassin," one of the Salarians said.

"Here for Nassana I bet, she's got it coming."

"Strange or not that's our man," John said. "You should go; it's safer in the lower levels."

"Thank you, you can use the cargo elevator, it's the quickest way up to the pent house," one of the Salarians said. "But be careful, since they're still working there are no walls or railings and the winds are strong across the bridge."

"Thanks for the info," John said.

The Salarians walked out of the room but one of them stopped. "Oh, and tell your assassin to aim for Nassana's head... cause she doesn't have a heart!"

"Come on," the other Salarian said.

John and the team went to the service elevator after the Salarians left the current level. Ragan presses a button; the wait was slow for it to come. John saw Zaeed restless.

"What's with you, old man?"

"We should get to cover, now," he said.

"Why?"

"Just a feeling."

The team went to cover as the elevator reached their floor. John was thankful for Zaeed's sixth sense, as a Krogan bounty hunter and two Eclipse engineers came out of the elevator. Zaeed threw a grenade at the bounty hunter as John and Samara focused on the two engineers. The Krogan charged at the team, John stopped him with a Stasis field and Ragan finished it with a shockwave. The engineers summon their drones to flank Zaeed and John while they focused on Samara and Ragan. The drones were quickly dealt with, Zaeed and John went to help Samara and Ragan and already found Ragan about to stab one of the last merc in the stomach with the hidden blade. In less than a second, without seeing an arm move, the engineer bleed to death from the stomach. He kept stabbing until it was up to five seconds that it took for the engineer to die. The team went up to the next floor. They exit the elevator to find an Eclipse trooper communicating with his superiors. They sneaked up to him; he didn't seem to notice the team's movement.

"I haven't heard from teams four or five," the merc said. "Don't worry, my team is always ready... I don't know here he is, but I'll find him," he snorted. "We won't need any reinforcements, we got this."

"Do you now," John asked raising his weapon. "Turn around slowly."

He turned around slowly while dropping his gun. "Damn it."

Ragan quickly grabs the merc's neck and holds him in a tight head lock. "I got a proposition for you, you tell your men to stand down and I won't test if you can sleep while flying," he said. "The choice is yours, chose wisely."

"Fuck you," he tried to growled. "You think you scare me?"

"Yes," he simply said. Ragan then smashed the merc against the window. "I want to know where the assassin is at?" It was a very long drop from here they were and Ragan was the only thing keeping him from falling.

"Screw you, even if you kill me, my men will take you down...," the merc said. Although the man didn't show it, there was great fear in his eyes.

"Wrong answer," Ragan said and smashed him again. "Talk or get ready to fly. Because the next smash will break the window."

"Go to hell," the merc said. Ragan then gave a smirk and quickly roundhouse kicked him through the window, the man started to scream until he found himself in a biotic field as this time a little further from the building. If Ragan decided to drop him this time, there would be no catching the next time.

"Strike two. Tell me, is it worth it? Is Nassana? If I were you, I would talk fast, you're getting heavy...," a lie really, thanks to Cerberus and Alliance upgrades he could hold him as long as he wanted with his biotics, but apparently it was a lie that worked as the merc quickly shook his head. "Good boy." He threw the merc back into the building and opened his comm.

"No sight of him on this floor, move on," the merc said. He looked at Ragan.

"Leave now," he said. The merc ran to the elevator. "Okay, time to split up again." He jumps up to the ceiling and opens the the vent cover and goes in.

The team went up to the second tower to meet up with Thane and Nassana.


	98. Chapter 63: The Assassin part 2

Chapter 63: The Assassin Part 2

John and the team made it to the next floor. As they walked towards the door, John stopped the team and they heard talking in the other room, he recognized of the voices, it was Nassana over the comm link.

"He's all over the place," the merc said.

"What do you mean," Nassana asked annoyed.

"We've got reports of him on multiple levels. We think he's travelling through the ducts."

"I'm not paying you to think. Just find him. Now!"

From the sound of her voice, Nassana was getting scared, Thane must be getting close. If the assassin gets to her first, they could lose their chance to recruit him. John gave the order to stand-by to the team, he then opened the door and mechs activated, but Samara blasted them explosive containers lessening their numbers.

"What the...," before the Eclipse merc could react, John gunned him down with his SMG. Around the corner an Eclipse biotic, came in close to Samara, but was shut down by Zaeed's sniper rifle. More reinforcements flooded the room, firing at the tema, they took cover.

"They're persistent, I give them that much," Samara said.

"Nassana must be paying them a fortune, if they're willing to throw their lives away," John said.

"She needs to get her money back," Zaeed said. He went out of cover and threw an inferno grenade at the mercs. Samara pushed them off ledges with biotic throw. John used his singularity to lift them up, and a warp to detonate it. Just then a rocket hit the team's cover, destroyed it and scattering the team, ten rocket drones flew overhead firing at them as they ran to cover.

"Fucking drones," John cursed. "Samara, help me with them." The Justicar nodded and blast the drones with her biotics, John overloaded several drones and they fell on the floor. Zaeed mowed down the mercs with more grenades. John got his Hydra and fired at the remaining mercs still alive. One the Eclipse mercs were dealt with the team went on their way, they heard sounds coming from the door on their left. John went over to open the door, Samara and Zaeed had their guns ready as John unlocked the door. The door opened, and a terrified Salarian was pointing a pistol at them.

"Stay back," he said frantically. "Get back or I'll shoot."

"Easy there, lad, don't do something you're going to regret," Zaeed said.

The Salarian shook his head and pointed his gun between them. "I don't want to hurt you... but I will. I said get back! I'll do it!" Whatever Nassana's thugs did to them, it traumatized them gun wielding Salarian. John could easily take him down, but he would rather not escalate the matter. John put his gun away and gesture Zaeed and Smara to put thier away also.

"Easy, we're not the mercs that hurt you, just put the gun down," John said. "We're here to get you out of here."

The Salarian lowered his gun. "I... I... don't feel so good," he said but before he could speak, Ragan quickly comes from the ceiling and punches the Salarian in the head.

"Ah... fuck," Ragan said when he realized he hit a civilian. Another Salarian came to his side. Samara and Zaeed raised their weapons but John raised his hand to stop them, the Salarians weren't a threat.

"Telon," the Salarian said. Ragan got to him and popped his knuckles. "Please, he's my brother. I just want to see if his alright." Ragan backed off. The Salarian then looked at John, "Are you the one's who shot that merc?"

John looked back at the dead merc that was next to the door. "Nope, it wasn't your brother?"

The worker shook his head. "NO, Telon was with me."

"What happened here," Ragan said.

"The merc founded us and shouted for us to move. We panicked and he shouted more," the worker closed his eyes then opened them. "I thought he was going to kill us, but... his head just exploded. Telon picked up the mercs gun but we were too afraid to leave. Then you showed up."

"Our man has one hell of an eagle eye," Zaeed said. "I'm impressed with this assassin."

"Was it the same guy we were looking for," John asked.

"Telon thought he saw something, but he's been on... edge."

"Okay, the lower floors should be safe," John said. "You might want to go."

"Of course," the Salarian said. "Telon, come on... get up." The Salarian grabbed Telon's hand and brought him up, Telon held his head.

"Can we go home now," he asked.

"Yeah, we're getting out of here," Telon's brother said. "Thank you."

John nodded as the Salarians went down to the lower level. John and the team took the time to refresh their supplies, they were close to the top, and once they started there would be no going back.

"We're almost there," Samara said. "Our enemies will be there in force."

"Unfortunately I can't use the ducts any more because the upper level is unfinished," Ragan said. "But I can use the the ledge to my advantage. Once we get to the pent house, I will open the duct there and travel behind Thane."

John cracked his neck. "I hope they brought a lot of body bags. And that would be good to do, mister ninja."

When they were ready, the team walked to the bridge and the roof, the comm was still open as Nassana was talking. "Where is everyone," she asked frantically. "Will someone give me a report?!" John pressed the comm button. "It's about time! What's going on down there?"

John smirked. "I'm afraid your men aren't able to respond, Nassana."

"Damn it! Wait... Shepard?!"

The bridge to Tower One was a long narrow walkway that was ideal for sniper rifles or assault rifles. There was the usual assortment of Eclipse mercs and mechs. The wind was pounding relentlessly against the bridge, one good push and it would be a long drop. Even Ragan's chain kunia can't save him if he was pushed for it wouldn't reach the bridge in time. It was perfect for John. The final walk began, as they stepped on the bridge, rocket drones started firing at them signaling another fight. John used his singularity field to left the mercs while wind carried his weightless enemies. Samara threw the mechs on the bridge, while Zaeed and Ragan dealt with the rocket drones.

"We've got them on the run," John yelled.

He blasted an explosive crate causing even more mercs to fly. Zaeed stopped the vanguards cold with sniper fire. Ragan quickly used his chain kunia and threw a merc in the air, after it left the merc's body, the wind quickly made the merc fly east. Samara gunned more mechs down. One they have cleared the bridge of enemies, they got into cover at the end of the bridge because the next wave on the upper level of the bridge leading to Tower One's pent house. John wiped them out with the last of his Hydra's missiles. They went up the stairs as an Eclipse Commando waited, as the last barrier to Nassana's pent house. Samara pulled the woman out of cover as John and Zaeed shot her int he head with their pistols. The last opposition was out of the way, the team wenter Nassana's Penthouse, while Ragan opened the duck and travelled through the area.

Once inside, the few remaining Eclipse mercs, tending to Nassana riases their weapons. Nassana turned around with wide eyes. "Shepard? Y-You're dead!" John smiled darkly, looking down the sights of his pistol at her, the shock expression of her face was worth more than a thousand words.

"I got better, though you probably should be worried more about your yourself," he said. "Give the circumstances."

"Wait," she said oddly calm. "Before you kill me, tell me who hired you."

"The ghost of your dead sister that you sent me to kill."

"Screw you," she growled.

"Charming as ever I see," John said with a smirk.

"If you're going to kill me, kill me, I'm not playing your damn games," she said. "You mad it this far, what now?"

"I'm not here to kill you."

She slammed her fist on her desk. "Don't screw with me! What other reason you have for destroying my towers? Decimating my security," Nassana asked.

The Spectre crossed his arms. "I'm looking for someone, your guys just got in my way, nothing more and nothing less," he said. "Besides, if I wanted you dead, you'd be dead, not shooting the shit with me."

"You expect me to believe that," the Asari said. "Is it credits? Is it that what you want? Just tell me your price."

John laughed hard as Nassana's guards looked at each other nervously. Nassana was taken aback; John composed himself, wiping the tear from his eye. "That would be insulting, if it wasn't so damn funny," he said. "Stupid girl, you think a couple of credits are going to make the target on your head disappear?"

"Bastard, you think you can fool me," she asked angrily. "ME?! NASSANA FUCKING DANTIUS?!"

John then heard a small thud above him and smirked. "I'm just humoring you, it's the least I can do, since..."

A green slim form dropped soundless behind on of the guards.

"You're..."

The newcomer's movements were swift but controlled, hands grasping chin and head, the snap of the neck filling the silence until a second guard made a sound of alarm.

"Going..."

A single shot from the Drell's pistol and the other collapsed.

"To..."

Dantius whirled to face the attacker, snatching a pistol up for her desk, only to find him inches from her. Her eyes went wide as she saw his weapon pressed just beheath her breastbone.

"Die."

One more shot and the Asari jerked, the assassin releasing his weapon catching her, eased her gently on the desk. He clasped his hand together, in silent prayer. Ragan comes from the ceiling and lands silently.

"That's our guy? Guddamn impressive," Zaeed said.

"Bout time you got here, I was getting tired of talking to her," John said. the assassin didn't answer, and stayed in the same position. "You know, praying of her is pointless, where she's going, it means jack shit."

"It's not for her, it's for me," the Drell said as he put away his gun. He looked behind him and quickly attacks but Ragan grabs his arm and backflips out of the Drell's reach. "Impressive that you remember that from me, Ragan." He looked at John, walking slowly towards him, no doubt cautious with the formerly dead Spectre, the veteran bounty hunter, the Justicar and one of his old students. Three opponents he weren't sure he could defeat. But Ragan, he couldn't defeat him. "The measure of an individual can be difficult to discern by actions alone. Take you for instance, all this destruction... chaos."

"What's your point?"

"I was curious to see how far you'd go to find me," Thane said. "But I will talk to Ragan. Well... here I am."

"You expected them, good then I cang et the pleasantries out of the way," Ragan said. "We're here to recruit you for a mission, against the Collectors."

"I've heard of them," he said. "Attacking the Collectors would require passage through the Omega-4 Relay. No ship has ever returned from doing so."

"That's what they said about Illos, and he intend to prove them wrong again," Ragan said with a smirk.

"Point taken," Thane said before chuckling lightly. "Well you're certainly confident, maybe that's enough." Than then became serious and turned his back to them, looking at Ragan and the sunrise peeking through Nassana's former office. "This was to be my last mission, I'm dying, low survival odds don't concern me, but the abductions of your colonists does."

"I'm sorry...," John said.

"Don't be," Thane said. "Giving me this opportunity is enough, the universe is a dark place, I'm trying to make it brighter, before I die." He lowered his head. "Many innocents died today. I wasn't fast enough and they suffered. I must atone for that." He turns around and offers his hand. "I will work for you Shepard. No charge."

On the Normandy, John introduced Thane to the Normandy crew; everyone seemed receptive to the new member, except Jacob. "I've hear impressive stories, Krios. Sounds like you'll be an asset to the team," he said with crossed arms. He then looked at Ragan and John. "That is if you're comfortable with an assassin watch your back."

"I've accepted a contract. My arm is John's," Thane said.

"Uh-huh. Don't know about you, but I'm loyal to more than my next pay check," he said.

"Obviously he is too. He's doing this mission for free, so what's the problem," Ragan asked.

"I don't like mercenaries. As assassin is just a precise mercenary."

"An assassin is a weapon. A weapon doesn't choose to kill. The one who wields it does," Thane said.

"Jacob, if you don't have courage behind your hand, then your weapon is powerless," Ragan said.

"Where should I put my things? I'd prefer some place dry, if it is available," the Assassin said.

EDI appeared. "The life support room, is dryer than the rest of the ship," to Thane's credit, he did not seem faze at the sight of an AI, most were when they fist came on. Ragan wanted it shut down, same with Joker and John.

"Ah. An AI/VI. My thanks," he said. He bowed at the three men, and left the room.

"He seems quite civil," she said.

"He quite different or an assassin, give him a chance, he might surprise you," John said.

"Maybe but then again maybe not," Jacob said before leaving the room.

Hours later, Jacob went to see Miranda on the new member of the team. Jacob never had a problems with bounty hunters or vigilantes, at least with them they were taking the scum of the galaxy out of play. Mercs, Assassins, and Ninja they were different, one minute they're on your side and the next your their target. To be fair, the same could be said about bounty hunters, but you'd have to screw up royally for someone to hire one. But Ragan was different, he is a ninja but he was also the type that did what was required to get the job done. Maybe he wasn't the one to talk, after all he wa swith Cerberus, a known terrorist group, but he like to hope for every evil thing the organization does, there is some good too.

"Miri, are you here," he asked. He came in and saw her on the couch staring at the data pad. "Miri?"

"Huh," she looked distracted, which was not like her. Miranda's always been on the ball, something was wrong. Jacob walked up to her and kneeled down in front of her.

"Hey, what's wrong," he asked. Her hands were shaking and Jacbo put them in his. He looked in her eyes, she was scared. "Miri?"

"It's my sister, Jacob, he found her," she said distressed. "My father found her!"

His eyes went wide. "We need to speak with Ragan and John."


	99. Chapter 64: The Prodigal part 1

Chapter 64: The Prodigal part 1

**Fifteen years ago - Elysium**

_It was pouring that day, it was what she remembered about that day... Miranda was running, more than she's ever done before, she was tired... so very tired, but she had to keep going. She ducked into a ditch just under a bridge, just above her were some suited men, her father hired them to capture her. In her arms, a little bundle stirred in her arms, a little girl awake from her nap, she fussed about to cry. Miranda cradled her softly. "Shh..." she said soft and gently. The girl settled down and went back to sleep._

_"Dammit, where is she," of of the men said._

_"I don't know, she just disappeared...," another man said._

_"Shit, find her! If you can't find her, get the Krimzon Guard to find her. And if that don't work, get the Watchdogs or TYGER. Mr. Lawson is going to have my head if we don't find her, and if that happens, I'll have yours," the first man growled. "FIND HER NOW!"_

_"Sir!" The footsteps went away, it was loud at first and then they became softer and softer until she couldn't hear them anymore. She was safe, for now, but she was over her head, she needed help. She set the little girl on the ground next to her, careful not to wake her and opened her omni-tool._

_"Hello," Jacob's voice was heard._

_"Jacob, Where's Niket," she asked._

_"Miri?"_

_"Where is Niket?"_

_"He's at work, Miri, what's up?" Miranda looked around, hoping the suited men would not come back, they weren't coming so it was safe to talk._

_"Jacob, meet me at the abandon mine, hurry."_

_"Miri, you're scaring me, what's wrong? Are you in trouble?"_

_"Please, Jacob I'll explain everything, just please hurry..."_

_Jacob sighed. "Okay." His image faded while Miranda took the girl up in her arms, and held her close to her body as she continued evading the suited men._

**NOW**

Jacob and Miranda went to see John in his quarters, on getting his help with Miranda's sister. Although John said that he trust them, they were still not so sure, they were members of a terrorist group after all. Miranda knocked on the door, John had made it so that only Tali, Ragan, Jane, Garrus, Kaiden, and Kasumi were allowed to walk in and out of his quarters with no problems, the rest had to knock unless it was a medical emergency. An annoyance, but she knew it was a trust issue, in his shoes she would have done the same thing.

"Commander, may we come in," Miranda asked.

John got out of his bed carefully as to not wake Tali and went to the door. Once the door opens he sees Jacob and Miranda. "Miranda, Jacob? What's this about," he asked.

Miranda looked at Jacob and he nodded. "John, I find myself in an unpleasant situation, I need your help. And possibly Ragan's as well," she said humbly.

John looked back at the sleeping Tali. "Okay, but not here I don't want to disturb Tali. We go to Ragan's quarters." The three of them went to Ragan's quarters and John knocked on the door.

"Open," Ragan's voice was heard. It was dark, no light was on but three candles on the floor with Ragan in the middle while floating above the floor about six feet. John, Jacob and Miranda came in. "Close." The door was voice sensor so when it heard close, it closed. "On." The lights came on and books were shown flying around the room in a nice pattern. With a swift motion of his hand, the books went on the bookshelf and stayed. John was impressed with Ragan's biotics. "So you finally came to apologize to me about getting Miranda to date me?"

Jacob looked at him with his head, Ragan knew that meant they weren't here to apologize. "No, something else came up."

"Do tell," Ragan said as he opened his eyes and got out of his meditation stance. He then slowly floated down to the floor and landed on the tips of his toes. He then slow brings his feet down. "Okay, what's this about? Something is troubling you three."

"My sister, she's been found by my father," Miranda said.

"Okay, and this is bad how," Ragan asked while looking at John with a confused look. John just shrugged his shoulders.

"My father is not what you would call a great man; he gave me anything I wanted, but only to make sure his legacy was up to his standards," she said.

"His legacy? What do you mean," John asked.

Miranda took a deep breath, she never told anyone the story about her, the only ones who knew was Jacob, Niket, and Cerberus. It wasn't easy for Miranda to get the words out, it was too painful, she felt hands on her, and it was Jacob giving her an assuring nod. "In reality, I don't have a mom or a dad," she said sadly. "I'm a designer baby," that go Ragan's attention, "all the of the traits I have, my looks, my reflexes, and my biotics were picked out for me, like parts from a catalog."

"So the reason you're called perfect is because..."

"I was designed that way, yes, my father didn't want a daughter, he wants a dynasty," Miranda said solemnly before taking a breath. "When I became older, I found out I had sisters, and when they didn't meet his standards, they were disposed of, like trash. Made it look like an accident."

"That bastard needs to die then," Ragan said. "If he can make someone live the way he wants, they are just puppets. I understand why now you are an Ice Queen, because you don't want anyone to know about you. I may have judged you too soon."

Jacob clenched his fists in anger, he remembered that day all too well, all he could think about was how could a father cause so much pain to his own flesh and blood. Apparently John felt the same way. Both Jacob and John were just like Ragan, think Miranda's father needs to be punished.

"Bastard," John said.

"That was also the same day I found out about my sister, Oriana, she... was to be my successor," Miranda said. "That was when, I decided to run away, and I took Oriana with me."

"Miri came to me to help hide her sister," Jacob said. "She went to a real nice family on our home colony, Elysium, after she was safe; me and my brother went to help her run."

"My father was pissed. He spent a fortune hiring mercs, bounty hunters, and even groups that were well known like TYGER, Watchdogs, and Krimzon Guard, so for most of my teenage years I was on the run until I was eighteen, that's when I met the Illusive Man and Cerberus," she said. "They were quite impressed with my abilities and knowledge, so in return for my loyalty, they said they would protect my sister and her family, she had a normal life, something I never had."

"But her father, somehow found her and hired mercs to help him."

"Do you know who they are," John asked.

"No by Lenteia, does. She's an Asari maid that used to work for my family, she's also a former Huntress, so she's very good at gathering info," Miranda said. "We're to meet her at a bar on Illium."

"Okay, let's go then," Ragan said. "Anything that deals with the crew has to go to me. So my decisions overrule John's due to his being the CO of this ship. CXO is to be with the crew."

"Okay, then. We go get her," John said.

**Fifteen Years Ago - Elysium - Outskirts of Illyria**

_Jacob arrived at the old mine on the outskirts of Illyria, the capital of Elysium. A dust eezo mine, from when Elysium first gotten settled, it was at the time the largest planet for mining eezo along with Eden Prime, Terra Nova, Mars, and Therum and responsible for the rise of the Mass Effect Technology that the Alliance were developing, no longer they would rely on tech from the Council. But for Jacob it was something special, it was special playing spot for them when Niket and Miranda and himself were younger, the grown-ups had said that the mines were too dangerous, but they didn't believe them, after all nothing happened to them. Jacob looked around for Miranda and saw her sitting down on a rocking holding a bundle in a white cloth;; she was cradling it, being very gentle with it._

_"Miri..."_

_"Jacob, thank God you're here...," Miranda said. "I need your help..." She revealed the bundle, and it was a little girl, no younger than a year old. Jacob looked at her. "This is my sister, Oriana, I need your help to hid her." Jacobs eyes went wide, for as long as he known her, she had been an only child, he was about to speak, but Miranda stopped him. "I'll explain later, but first I need to get Ori to safety..."_

**NOW**

"Ms. Lawson, Mr. Taylor. I'm glad you mad it. We've had a complication," Lenteia said. She gazed at John and Ragan. "Ma'am, who are these two?"

"This is Commander John Shepard, my commanding officer, and Commander Ragan Shepard, my commanding executive officer, they have agreed to help," Miranda said. "What do you mean complications? Is Oriana okay?" John and Ragan looked at Miranda's eyes, they had never seen her so unnerved and she was usually a cool customer. This wasn't a game for her, and for her to come to them for help, meant her father was more bad news than she was telling them.

"She's fin, but I was contacted by Niket, your father had sent Eclipse mercs to make the sweep," Lenteia said. "He suggested the mercs might be watching you personally. He offered escort Oriana's family to the terminal, instead."

"Who's Niket," John asked.

"My older brother," Jacob said.

"Do you want to use any other contacts on Illium," Lenteia asked.

"No, you Jacob and Niket are the only ones I trust on this," Miranda said.

"You sure? Changing plans could be dangerous," Ragan said.

"I'm sure, I trust Niket with my sister," Miranda said. "Lentiea, we'll follow his suggestion, and take a car to draw their attention, have Niket to escort the family to the shuttle and give him full access to the family itinerary, just to be safe."

The Asari nodded. "Of course, Ms. Lawson, and be careful, you too Mr. Taylor."

"So the plan is to get shot down, while your sister gets away," Ragan asked.

"Eclipse will be under orders to take my sister alive, they won't risk that," Miranda said.

"Still, I doubt that Eclipse will send all their people just to stop us, want to get Niket back up?"

"My brother can take care of himself, always had, and besides armed back up would draw too much attention to him," Jacob said.

"Alright, let's go," John said.

"Thank you Ragan, you too John, I hadn't plan on Eclipse but they never planned for you two."

They found a car after leaving the bar, and drove to the location of the Eclipse mercs. the cargo area was huge, full of boxes and equipment. A perfect place for Niket to hide with Oriana, this was Eclipse they were dealing with, and they had plenty of people looking for them, including mechs. There was only so many places they could hide before Eclipse box them in. The team to a car to meet with the mercs, during the flight towards the cargo terminal, Miranda notices several Eclipse gunships at the cargo area.

"Damnit, they'll be dropping troops in the cargo area," she said. "Figures..."

"We'll get her out," Jacob said. Miranda nodded.

"Miranda, we will get her out. I understand why you are concern about you sister. I had one before she died of a virus," Ragan said. "She was twenty years old when she died. Younger than me. She always got in trouble and I was the one that had to deal with it. She was a seven years younger than me."

"I'll put us down in cover behind the truck," John said. "Get ready." They felt the car shake hard, the mercs were firing at them, John zigzagged to dodge the gunfire. However, the cab had been damaged from the open fire, forcing a hard landing a few meters away from the mercs. The squad exists the disabled cab.

"Everyone okay," John asked. Jacob and Miranda nodded. Ragan groaned.

"Company," Jacob said. The mercs approached them, ready to open fire if it came to it. John analyzed their oppositions. The leader had on tech armor, same design as his own armor and he probably was a shotgun user, he would be trouble. To his side, were two troopers, not really a probelm if you took them out fast. in the back were two engineers, a Salarian and a Human, also three heavy weapon users for when John and his team took down the leader.

"I got this," their leader said.

"Since you're not firing, I trust you know who I am," Miranda said.

"Yeah, you're the bitch that kidnapped our bosses little girl," he said.

Miranda frowned. "Kidnapped? This doesn't involve you, so take your men and leave."

The merc leader smirked. "Think you got it all lined up, do you. Captain Enyala's moving on the kid. She knows about Niket. He won't be helping you."

"What do you mean," Jacob said clenching his fist. Ragan puts his hand in front of him and shook his head.

"Nothing you need to worry about unless you do something stupid."

"Bastard," Jacob growled as he glowed a faint blue. Miranda grabbed his hand and shook her head. He calmed down.

"You walk away and the girl goes back to her father, everyone's happy."

"Everyone but my sister and... me," Miranda said. "You're not taking her." John nodded. Ragan got his hidden blades ready.

"I'm giving you one chance to leave, that's more than most get," John said. "I suggest you take it."

The leader laughed. "Just the three of you? You won't get the chance, while we were talking, my men have lined up shots," the merc said. "On my order, they will unleash hell, leave before it gets ugly."

"Is that so," John gets out of the way and reveals Ragan with his gun ready. The merc leader grabs his shotgun but before he could aim, Ragan quickly slides towards the merc and stabs him three times. One in the stomach, then left shoulder and finally the neck. Miranda pulls her pistol and shoots the merc standing behind the engineer. John then glances up and fires a few shots at the overhead fuel container, which falls and explodes. Then the squad runs into cover, Jacob pulls the last merc towards him and blasts him with his shotgun. After disposing the group of mercs, they moved up and took cover at the right due to there more mercs there. They were using the cover to take pot shots at the squad. John let loose his singularity field, while they were in the air Miranda slammed them to the ground, snapping their necks. They ran to the elevator.

"Team one, team four, come in," a voice said over a small radio. Miranda walked over and picked up the radio.

"Hold one, I've got one of their radios. I'll patch us in," she said. She worked on her omni-tool. "Okay, we can now listen on their radio chatter." The team went to the elevator; during the ride Miranda noticed Jacob was silent. "Jacob?"

He looked at her. "Sorry, just worried about Niket, after mom died and dad disappeared, he's the only family I have left you know."

Miranda lowered her head. "I'm sorry I got you and Niket in the middle of my mess with my father," she said sadly. "It's my own fault..."

"Don't be... we would help you, even if you didn't ask for our help," he said. "I have no regrets."

Miranda clasphed his hand. "Thank you, I promise to make it up to you, all three of you."

"You don't have to for me," Ragan said. "Siblings needs to look after each other and the people that have siblings needs to look after another person that has a silbing or more."

"But then I'm in debt," Miranda said. "Why keep me in debt."

"You are paying for it right now. This mission and the possible suicide mission."

"Thank you," Miranda only said. This was the first time Ragan wasn't harsh to her but she understood why. The elevator reached its stop. Miranda and Ragan saw the gold and white of Eclipse uniforms. "They're on the far side of the conveyor belt, time your shots. And Ragan, get your ninja on."

"Got it," John said as he pulled out his arc projector. He fired on one of the mercs causing an explosion when the electricity hit the canisters. More came replacing the fallen mercs, Jacob pulled the mercs over the ravine and Miranda gunned down the ones left standing. Two more mercs come up from beneath the floor grates, but Ragan quickly runs up and stabs one in the back before doing a swift vault over and bash his fist into the merc's head. When the battle was over the comm patch throgh, it was thier captain.

"This is Enyala! Keep the bitch back! Niket is nearing the transport terminal.

"So, he is alive," Jacob said relieved.

"Not for long if we don't hurry," John said. The team continued to explore the area, fight mercs to get to Niket and Oriana. The battles were not by themselves hard, but the engineers and their drones made the battles long and drawn out, excatly what Enyala planned for if Ragan didn't destroy them with a cyro grenade. Over the next corner, they were attacked by mech, John and Miranda overloaded the mechs.

"I don't care how many mechs you lose, stall them, damn it," Enyala said. More mercs took the place of the mechs, them taking precious time.

"Damn it he's not getting Oriana," she said taking cover. The mercs were relentless, but was dealt with John's heavy weapon and Ragan's quick executions. Miranda was thankful for bring them two with him, as it saved a lot of time. "We're close, we just take the elevator and we can catch up with them."

Just as they enter the area, EDI notifies them. "Eclipse operatives have disabled the elevator, to stall you, I am attempting to override but not doing so well."

"Thanks EDI." They took cover immediately as enemies will come from all directions, including the elevator. "This is it, time to pull all the stops." Ragan, Miranda and Jacob nodded.

"Dont worry Ori, we're coming...," she muttered. The battle was long and hard fought, after the battle EDI was able to override the controls. They then heard the radio.

"Niket is at the terminal. He'll switch the family over to our transport." Jacob and Miranda looked at each other.

"W-what," Jacob asked.

"But that can't be right... Niket wouldn't...," Miranda said disbelieving. "Maybe the captain knows... and is feeding us false info."

"I-it's got to be, my brother wouldn't do this," Jacob said. "He's loyal to a fault, always been."

"What makes you so sure," John asked.

"He could have turned on us when I ran away, but he didn't," Miranda said.

"She's right," Jacob said. "Her father had tried to buy us off multiple times, he knew we needed the money, but we never told."

"Maybe you're right, it could be a misunderstanding," John said. "We won't know until we get there." The elevator went up. John and the team heard chatter from the other side of the door.

"Listen to me, I got authorization to change their booking," a male voice said.

"Who is that," John said looking back at Miranda and Jacob. They looked downtrodden, it was then he knew the answer, it was Niket.

"Son of a bitch, I'll kill him myself," Ragan said. "No one messes with the crew anyway."

"I'm sorry, sir. We're under security lockdown until the situation is under control. no passengers can be rebooked."

Another voice was heard. "This isn't worht my time, Niket. I get paid regardless of how the girl gets there."

"I was told to handle this my way; we're not traumatizing the girl anymore than we..." The elevator opened. John and the squad arrives from the elevator. "Miri, Jacob..."


	100. Chapter 64: The Prodigal part 2

Chapter 64: The Prodigal part 2

**Fifteen years ago - Elysium**

_Jacob shook his head in disbelief. Miranda had told him the story, about her stumbling into her father's study that revealed a secret lab that held her little sister, Oriana. But that wasn't all she found out, she found her true origin, that she wasn't Henry Lawson's daughter but his clone. "So the story about your mother dying during childbirth..."_

_"All lies..."_

_Jacob put his hand on her shoulder. "Miri, I'm so sorry..."_

_Miranda shook her head. "And the worst part about this? Oriana and I weren't even the first ones he made...," she said. "There were tweleve clones before me and Ori, six boys and six girls."_

_"What happened to them...," Jacob asked grimly. He really didn't want to know the answer_

_"They were flushed...," she said. "When they didn't meed my father's expectations they were disposed of, they never made it to their first years." Jacob's eyes went wide, miranda could have easily been one of those twelve. he couldn't wrap his head around it, how could someone be so cruel to their children?_

_"Okay... let's hide her, I'll just call Niket and..."_

_"Wait!"_

_"Miri?"_

_"Miket can't know...," she said. Jacob was taken aback by that statement, since they were little; they never had to hide anything from each other. No matter what they could tell each other anything._

_"Miri, he's my brother, I can't just lie about something like this."_

_"He wouldn't understand this...," she said sadly._

**NOW**

The elevator opend John and the squad arrives from the elevator. "Miri, Jacob..." There they stood with a dark-skinned man and two Asari, one was an ordinary dockworker and the other was dressed in Eclipse armor, Enyala. John looked at Miranda and Jacob, they had look of hurt on their faces. Ragan walked up and started popping his knuckles.

Enyala smirked. "This should be fun," she said raising her gun. John and the team raised their guns as well. The dock offical tries to run but Enyala mercilessly shoots but misses her because Ragan threw his chain kunia at the shotgun and disarmed her.

"Why Niket," Miranda said. "You were my friend."

Niket looked away. "Only because you wanted to leave," he said. "But if I had know about you stealing a child..."

"I didn't steal her, I saved her."

"From a life of wealth and happiness," he asked. "You weren't saving her! You were getting back at your father." He then looked at Jacob. "And you Jacob, how could you do this? You own brother. And worse you didn't even tell me, i had to find out from Mr. Lawson."

Jacob and Miranda looked at each other. "He contacted you," Jacob asked.

Niket nodded. "Yes, just before you called Miri, I was contacted by Mr. Lawson," he said. "He told me about the bugs you placed before you left; ehe even told me that you two joined Cerberus, a damned terrorist group! He wanted me to play along and then Oriana would go to a different shuttle to her father."

John frowned. "Father? Oriana has been with her family for years, you would be taking her from the only family she knows," he said. "How can you justify that?"

"Mr. Lawson can be a hard man, I know, but he can give her a good life." He then looked at Jacob. "The kind of life I wished we had..."

"If only you knew, Niket," Ragan said. "You assume that Miranda is stealing a life from a child for wealth and happiness."

Jacob's eyes went wide. "You didn't...," he narrowed his eyes. "How much Niket? How much did he pay you?!"

Niket looked away. "Three million credits, enough to pay some debts and live comfortably."

Miranda away. "Dammit, how could you? How could you take his money?!"

"Don't you dare, Miranda! You've been living on his money for years; you don't get to play high and might," Niket said angrily.

"Do you even know what kind of a man you sold your soul to?! You sold it to Herny Lawson, the kind of man who would murder his own child if it wasn't up to his standards," Miranda said.

"Henry Lawson, you say. Son of a bitch needs to die for killing twelve clones," Ragan said.

"W-what do you mean," Niket asked.

Miranda hesitated for a bit before speaking again. "I'm his clone, I wasn't born in the womb, like you and your brother, I was engineered in a lab," she said and motioned Ragan to step forward. "Just like my siblings before me, I was to be replaced when I didn't live up to his so-called legacy."

Niket's eyes widen. "You mean..."

"Orina was to be Miri's replacement, he was going to have Miranda killed and make it look like an accident," Jacob said.

"And he'll do the same thing to Oriana, if his ego isn't sated," Ragan said. "Mr. Lawson is not the type of person you want to work for. Now are you on our side or on his?"

"I...," was all Niket could say.

"Come on bro, this isn't right," Jacob said. "Please don't do this, especially to a friend."

"If you're working for Miranda's father, then we need a new solution," John said. "If you really care for her, you'll do it."

"Otherwise, I will kill you," Ragan said before drawing his sword.

Niket was silent for a while, Jacob and Miranda was nervous, and rightly so if Niket decided to side with Miranda's father, they would have to fight him. john knew that due their history things would be hard on them, killing someone you cared about was never eyes. Ragan and John looked at Enyala, her eyes were cold, and she to was anticipating Niket's answer. "I'll tell him you hid her that I don't know where she is."

Enyala glared at him. "What?!"

Niket looked at her. "This isn't right; I don't care what Mr. Lawson says, I'm not betraying Miri."

"Nikete...," Miranda said.

"Bro...," Jacob said. They then heard a shot and Niket was on the ground in a puddle of his own blood. Enyala stood there with satisfied smirked as she reloaded her backup shotgun. "NO!"

"Well that was unfortunate, but at least I get paid extra," Enyala said with a smirk.

"What do you mean," John asked.

"Mr. Lawson had a feeling that Niket would go soft, and try something," the Asari merc said. "So he paid me extra for cleanup work." Miranda and Jacob glared at her. "I was going to kill him after the girl was secure, but you little drama made things easier, thanks for making me fifty thousand credits richer."

Miranda lifts her and biotically flings the Eclipse captain across the room, her eyes filled with hate. "YOU'LL DIE FOR THAT, BITCH!"

Enyala got back to her feet ready to fight; around her were several Eclipse mercs. John stepped forward and activated his tech armor. Ragan then grabs his sniper rifle. John looked at Jacob and Miranda, their eyes was cold and focused on Enyala they were out for blood, more specifically her's. "We'll handle theses guys; I guess you'll want to take the bitch down."

Jacob glowed. "Yes," he said simply walking with Miranda.

"Give them hell," Ragan said. He faced down the Eclipse mercs. "Fifteen against two, i almost feel sorry for you. Now, Dragon." John took out his arc projector and pulled the trigger. Ragan then quickly unleashes a biotic maelstrom attack. Mercs went flying and most of them hit the wall so hard, they died on impact. And if a merc had tech armor, it was destroyed automatically when the maelstrom came into effect.

Jacob caught up with Miranda to face Enyala. "Well, isn't this something, a brother and a childhood friend avenging a loved one who wronged them, it would be funny if it wasn't so damn pathetic," Enyala said. Miranda threw a warp field at Enyala, she just smirked and glowed blue and charged at Miranda.

"Miri," Jacob yelled. He pushed Miranda out of the way and took the Asari's attack after his barrier was up. Jacob flew back and hit the rails hard bending them. Jacob clutched his chest, Enyala's charge was powerful if he didn't raise his barriers it woul have been much worse than a couple of broken ribs.

"Jacob," Miranda said coming to his side. "Speak to me."

"I'm alright, just a scratch," he joked as he winced in pain. Miranda threw a warp field at Enyala, and backed it up with fire from her machine gun, but it bounched off like it was nothing. Enyala's barrier was the toughest she ever seen, not even her most powerful warp could take it down. Enyala gave a sickening grin as she started to glow blue, she charged at them, Miranda pulled Jacob away and two dodged as the Asari rammed through several crates. Miranda and Jacob shot at her, but she once again raised her barrier. They were getting nowhere fast and Enyala is catching her stride, they need to think of something quick. Jacob then spoke up.

"The row of canisters near to her, if we can get her there and set off the cainsters, you should be able to break her barrier," he said while getting up. "I'll draw her fire, you just get in the position." Miranda put a hand on his shoulder, concerned for his well-being, with his busted ribs he wouldn't get anywhere far. "I'll be fine, now go."

"Don't you dare die on me, Jacob," she said as she got up. Jacob ran and shot Enyala with his pistol, getting her attention. He ran between the rows of canisters.

"A chase, I love a good hunt," she said charing up her attack. Jacob ran as fast he could, but his ribs were screaming in pain. He had to get at the end, Enyala charged at him at last moment he ducked and rolled, it was hell on his ribs, but at least he got where he wanted her.

"Miri, now," he yelled. Miranda pointed her omni-tool at the canister overloading it, causing a chain of explosions, each stronger than the last. Enyala looked back to see the raging fireball coming at her.

Her eyes went wide. "Oh, shit..." The ball of fire engulfed her, she screamed in agony as she ran desperately trying to kill the falmes, however the flames only got bigger and bigger until the Asari slowed down and fell down leaving only charred remains of a former Asari. Miranda went to Jacob and helped him up.

"Are you okay," she asked.

"No...," he said as he looked at the corpse of Niket. The last merc fell as a round struck his skull; Ragan and John went to Miranda and Jacob. As they go closer, they saw them near the body of Niket, mourning him. John looked on giving them time. Ragan went up to them and prays in Japanese language. After a moment, they exited the docks to enter the space port and meet with Oriana.

"No sign of Eclipse, we lost them," Miranda said with joy. She then moved her gaze to a red-haired woman, she looked just like a younger Miranda. She was smiling with a man with dark brown hair and a woman with black hair, her family. "There she is, safe with her... family."

"She's beautiful, like you," Jacob said holding on to Miranda. She blushed.

"Come on, we should go."

"Dont you want to talk to her," Ragan asked.

"It would be wise to do that," John backed with Ragan.

Miranda lowered her head. "It's not about what I want, it's about what's right for her," she said. "The less she knows about me, the better."

"Bullshit," Jacob said. "You finally found family who can love you for real, don't pass it up, because of a little fear."

"But your ribs...," she said.

"Can be fixed later," he said. "She doesn't need to know the details, but would it be so bad for her to know she has a sister that loves her?" Miranda looked at John, he smiled and nodded. Ragan did the same thing.

"Go to her, we'll take care of Jacob," Ragan said. "This is your moment. Don't screw this up. Fear is a state of mind. If you let fear take over, then you are doubting everything later on."

"Thank you, all three of you," she said walking over to her sister. Ragan, John, and Jacob sat down, waited for Miranda.

"Funny," John said.

"What is," Jacob asked.

"I don't think I ever seen Miranda smile," he said. "It's nice."

Jacob looked at Miranda. "Yeah it is, just like when we were kids," Jacob then grew serious. "Losing family, does it ever get easy?"

"No it doesn't, you always find yourself wishing you had said you cared or regret bad things, you wish you could take them back," Ragan said. "Before my father died by Geth, I yelled at him. Worse mistake ever. But when you have people who care for you, the loss doesn't hurt as bad unless you yelled at them before they died." He smiled. "We're lucky to have people who do care for us. I have John, Tali, Garrus, Wrex, Liara, you, Miranda, Samara, Thane, Joker, Karen, Chole, Jane, Kasumi, Lia, and the rest of the Normandy crew. And you have the same because no matter what, we are all a team."

Jacob smiled. "Thanks."

"No problem. If you need to talk, I have a twenty-four policy." Miranda came and met with the three men, with a final goodbye to Oriana, they went back to the Normandy.

**Fifteen years ago - Elysium**

_Jacob looked around the corners, no sight of the men after Miranda. He gave the signal and Miranda came out of the shadows with Oriana. They made it to the house of Alice and Michael Jameson, school teachers at Jacob's middle school. According to Jacob, they were very well like teachers at school and in their community, they had always wanted to have children, but couldn't due to cancer robbing Mrs. Jameson of her ability to conceive. For Miranda, they were the perfect choice, normal and unassuming; Oriana would have a family worthy of her._

_"You sure about this, Miri," Jacob asked. "You may never see her again, you know."_

_"I know, but it's for the best, she doesn't need to know about her origins, my father, or even me... she'll grow up happy." Miranda looked at Oriana one last time, she looked at her smiling, oblivious of what was going to happen next. Tear ran down her face as Miranda kissed her sister's forehead, possible for the last time. "I know you'll never know me, and I want it that way, but no matter what, your big sister loves you and wishes for you to have happy long life. Good bye Ori..." She sat her down on the porch gently and rang the doorbell. Jacob and Miranda ran away, as man came and scooped up the little girl and went inside. Miranda looked back and smiled._

**Now**

Laster back on the Normandy, Miranda went to check on Jacob in the med-bay. Jacob was ordered, by John and Ragan to take time off until his ribs were all better. Talking with her sister made her think, about Cerberus, about her life, and especially Jacob, who's been with her since the beginning, through think and thin. John was right, life was too short, they could die all on the mission, and if that was the case, she would not have any regrets. She went inside.

"Hey," Jacob said. He had his shirt off with white bandages wrapped aroudn his chest while his ribs heal.

"Hey," she said. "Are you doing okay?"

"The Doc said I was lucky to have broken ribs, it could have easily been worse," he said. "I'm out of action for a good four to five weeks."

"Maybe you'll think next time before doing that again," she said.

"Never when it comes to you," Jacob caused Miranda to blush.

"I'm sorry about Niket, he wouldn't have died if he didn't meet me, and you wouldn't be hurt...," she said.

"I told you I don't regret a damn thing," Jacob said. "If Niket was alive, he'd say the same thing, I care about you Miri, that won't change." Miranda ran up and kissed him on the lips, Jacob blushed and looked confused. "Wow..."

"I care for you too," she said. "You are the only one that I can be myself with and I want to be with you."

Jacob smiled. "The Cerberus queen showing her emotions, whatever will the crew think," he asked jokingly.

She crossed her arms and scoffed. "I don't care what they think. My life, not theirs."

"True enough," Jacob said. "Joh's devil-may-care attitude is rubbing off on you," he said with a smirk.

"He may be an idiot once an a while - but his N7 scores says otherwise - but he does give good advice from time to time. Just like his cousin," Miranda said. "Would like to bunk with me? Only for tonight of course."

Jacob go up and kissed her on the lips. "Of course." Miranda and Jacob made their way to her room, hand in hand.


	101. Chapter 65: Collector Ship

Chapter 65: The Collector Ship

"What? Say that again," John asked shocked about this. After combing back from saving Miranda's sister, he had gotten a message from Hackett and TIM on the Collectors, what he heard was damned surprising.

"I intercepted a distress call from a Turian patrol. They stumbled upon a Collector ship beyond the Koruls system," TIM said. "They were wiped out, but not before crippling their ship."

"It seems that something is not right. How can a Turian patrol beat something that is more advanced than the Geth and Asari," Hackett asked. "I say it is a trap."

"Hard to believe anything could cripple them, especially after what they did to my old ship," John said.

"The ship is strong, yes, but it's not invincible, the fact it can be crippled is proof," TIM said. "I need you to board that vessel and get hard data on the Collectors. Find us a way to their home world."

"If they had a patrol, won't the Turians send out a recon team," John asked.

"They are but after this objective. The Alliance and Cerberus needs this right now. Projecting humanity and our allies is our number one priority. Turians are classified as our allies but for some reason, I don't think a Turian patrol did that. Maybe a Krogan," Hackett said very quickly. John then knew that something was up but couldn't put his finger to it.

"Like the Admiral said, they will eventually, but I intercepted the transmissions. In the meantime, we're feeding them false reports," TIM said. "You're close enough that you can be in and out before the Turians find the truth."

"Do you know what I can expect there," John asked bluntly.

"My reports indicate the hull's intact, but all systems seem offline," Hackett said. "They could be making repairs as we speak. I'm not saying it won't be dangerous, but we can't let this type of opportunity like this slip by without knowing something."

"Send me the co-ordinates, I'll check it out," John said.

"Already sent," TIM said. "Once on board establish a link with EDI and Ragan. They'll mine their data on the Omega-4 relay and possibly new upgrades for the ship." He smoked a drab. "Good luck, Shepard."

"Won't need luck," he said with a smirk. TIM's image faded. "You sure we can trust him about this?"

"I'm not sure but if this is like any type of opportunity we had, this one will be taking the cake," Hackett said. "Fifth Fleet out." Hackett's imaged faded.

"Joker," John said.

"Co-ordinances punched in, ETA three hours," Joker's voice was heard over the intercom.

The Normandy crew mad their way to the disabled Collector ship. It was still hard to believe that Turians disabled the ship, John wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"We have a visual, Commander," Joker said. There is was, the insect hive-like ship floating dead in space, the once mighty ship that destroyed the first Normandy and put John in a coma two years ago was now a plaything to the whims of the galaxy. Even though it wad disabled, the team couldn't let down their guards, it was still a Collector ship.

"I had hope to never see that ship again," Tali said.

"I know, me too," John said. "EDI, what do we got?"

"Very low emissions. Passive inferred temperatures suggest most systems are offline. Thrusters are cold," she said.

"That thing's massive. How the hell did the Turians take it out," Joker asked.

"Maybe they had something that we don't have. Thalix cannons are more powerful than the Disruptor Cannons we have," Ragan said. He was sitting in the co-pilot's seat, since the Normandy didn't have a co-pilot, he took the seat and started hacking. "EDI, protocol four."

"Yes, Ragan," she said. "Establishing connection. Error: Need authorization from Cerberus Official."

"Connect Miranda to give me full access. Tell her what is going on."

"Of course," her hologram vanish and then reappeared. "Authorization granted."

"Good. Now lets see here. Ladar scans do not detect any hull breaches on the side facing us. No mass effect field distortion, the drive core seems to be offline. Weapons systems are jammed - probably thanks to EMPs."

"Hmm, a patrol ship did this much damage to the systems," Tali asked. "John, we should be careful, something about this whole thing seems off."

"Agreed," John said.

"Rendezvous in thirty seconds, good luck Commander," Joker said.

The team made touchdown in the ship, the interior was something else; it looked more like a insect hive on the inside than the outside. The ship definitely had an otherworldly feel to it, like they were ripped out of their world and into theirs; it felt off, it felt wrong. The uneasiness of it all put the team on edge.

"Never seen a ship like this before," Tali said.

"It's too quiet, I don't like it," Thane said. "We should have seen collectors by now."

Keep an eye out, expect ambushes," John said activating his tech armor. They went on exploring the ship and still there was nothing, John didn't get it, were the Collectors all dead? John then shook his head it wouldn't be possible the ship was just disabled and he is pretty sure they had back-up systems, after all they were no good to the Reapers if they are dead, not to mention they were quite protective to their capture as seen on Horizon.

"Scans have indicated an access node to up-link with Collector databanks," EDI said. "Marking location to your omni-tool."

"Thanks," Tali said.

"I have also compared this ship's EM signature to know Collector profiles," Ragan said.

"What did you find out," John asked.

"It is the same vessel encountered on Horizon."

"Maybe the defense towers soften it for the Turians."

"Didn't you say there were colonists that were taken from the conly, maybe we'll find them," Tali said.

"Doubtful, when a person is in Collector hands, they are never seen again," Thane said. John spoke up.

"I think your theory is correct, Thane," he said. "Look." They came across a brown pod, the same ones John encountered on Horizon.

"Keelah...," Tali gasped. Thane checked the pod.

"It's empty," he said. "I can only imagine the terror they felt, they will be avenged."

They had been only minutes on the ship, but it felt like hours as they continued to exploring the ship and still they saw no signs of Collectors, just more and more pods, some empyt and not. Finally they got to an opening only to see the remnants of the Collector's carnage. Piles upon piles of bodies lay on the ground, discarded like trash. A lot of them had regular clothes on, some had on armor and even more disturbing some of them were children, some as young as four and some as old at thirteen.

"How could they do this," Tali asked in horror. She held on to John and looked away.

"Dammit, and I thought the Spartans were brutal," Ragan said.

John clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. "Bastards...," he said in a quiet rage. Thinking back to what Kaiden said on Horizon, Kaiden and Jane would either be a husk or lying in a pile right now from the Collectors doing God knows what. Thane came up to the pile and knelt on one knee and clasped his hands together.

"Grant these poor souls mercy and passage to the deep, Kalihera," Thane prayed silently.

"We'll avenge them, they're not doing this to others," John said. Tali and Thane nodded.

The team moved on, finding more and more bodies until they reached a new area, this area felt cold and sterile; it was a lab and on the bed was a Collector, a dead on. it was still hooked up to the machines; it seems the Collectors were just as cold and callus to their own as they were to the colonists. "Experimenting on their own? Why am I not surprised," John asked. John activated his omni-tool and scanned the dead Collector. "EDI, Ragan. I'm uploading data from this terminal, see if you can figure out what they were up to."

"Data received. Analyzing," EDI said.

"Cross referencing," Ragan said. "Done. EDI should I tell them or should you."

"Either will do. The Collectors were running baseline genetic comparison between their species and humanity."

"Why," Tali asked. "Are they looking for similarities?"

"I have no hypothesis on their motivations. All I have are the preliminary results. They reveal something remarkable."

"And that is," John asked.

"A quad-strand genetic structure, identical to those collected from ancient ruins."

"Ancient ruins," John's eyes went wide. It could only mean one thing. "You mean..."

"Yes, the Collectors are a Reaper version of the Protheans," Ragan said.

"Keelah, but they're extinct," Tali said shocked.

"They are no longer Prothean, just slaves to the Reapers," Thane said. "A tragic fate."

"Thane is right, their genes show extensive genetic rewrite," EDI said. "The Reapers re-purposed them to suit their needs."

"You'd think someone would have picked up on this," John said.

"No one has had the opportunity to study a Collector genetic code in this detail," she said. "I have already matched two thousand alleles to the recorded fragment; this Collector likely descends from a Prothean colony in the Styx Theta Cluster, but there are no signs of extreme alteration. Three fewer chromosomes, reduced heterochromatic structure. Elimination of superfluous 'junk' sequences."

"The Reapers cruelty knows no bounds," Tali hissed. "Even the Geth aren't as bad as this."

"We need to stop this," John said. "Let's go." The team went on their way, the less and less they saw the Collectors, the more nervous they became. They made it to an even bigger area, the floor, walls, and ceiling was lined with pods.

"Keelah, there are so many of them," Tali said.

"How many are in there," Thane asked.

"Too many," John said with a frown.

"There are no life signs in the pods, John," Ragan said. He almost sounded sad. "It is probable that the victims died when the ship lost primary power."

"Commander, you gotta hear this. On a hunch, I asked EDI to run an analysis on this," Joker said.

"What did you find out," Tali asked.

"I compared the EM profile against the data recorded by the original Normandy two years ago, they're an exact match."

"What," Ragan's voice had anger in it. "Time to blow this motherfucker out of this Milky Way. EDI activate Protocol Ten."

"This is the same ship that killed John two years before," Tali asked. Her voice sounded pained.

"The same ship dogging me? Way beyond coincidence," John said.

"Something doesn't add up, Commander, watch your back."

"Got it, you heard the man. Protocol Ten will be in and when that happens, this ship will be destroyed."

The team made it to an even bigger area; there were pods as far as they eye could see, too many to count. As they walked, they could see that some of the pods were full, but then most of them were not. "That is... big," Thane said.

"Keelah, they could take every Human in the Terminus System, and still not have enough to fill the ship," Tali said. her eyes went wide. "They're going to target Earth after all the Human colonies are gone."

"Not if we stop them," John said. He then saw a platform at the end of the path. The team went to it. "Looks like a control panel, Rookie."

"On it," Tali said. "EDI, I'm sending you a bridge between you and the Collector ship, standby. Ragan, I found their armory and other things they have, sending that to you."

"Acknowledged," EDI said. "Data mine in progress, Tali." A beeping sound was then heard.

"Well shit," Ragan said.

"Ah, that can't be good," Joker said.

"Status report," John ordered. The team heard a loud thud all around them. John looked to his side and saw a mechanism getting released and then a huge flash of lite that temporarily blinded them. "What the hell just happened?"

"Major power surge, everything went dark, but we're back up," Joker said.

"I managed to divert most of the overload to non-critical system," she said. "It's not a malfunction, it's a trap."

The platform started to float as the team held on. John groaned. "Tell me something I don't know," he said. "A little help here, EDI."

"I'm having trouble maintaining connection; someone else is in the system." The platform came to a complete stop, and the team fell to the floor. As John got off the floor several platforms started to fly towards them. One of them, a Collector started to glow.

"**ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL**," it said.

"Aw, fuck," John cursed. Before the team could react, a blue shock broke their shields, flying in the collectors side was a Scion, it was going to be a tough battle. harbinger fired a singularity field at John, the Spectre ran to cover and field overhead missing him.

"Go get them Chatika," Tali said while summoning her drone. Thane took down two Collectors with his sniper rifle, with his shredder rounds, the Collector's heads were torn to pieces. John froze Harbinger in a stasis field, and blasted the two Collectors with his particle weapon dissolving them into an orange paste. Chatika took down one Collector before expiring and exploding taking out two more.

"Hurts, don't it, bitch," John asked with a smirk. He then opened his comm. "EDI?"

"Connection re-established. I need time to finish the download before I can override any of the systems."

"Then get it down, fast," John ordered.

John got out of cover and lifted the Collectors with his singularity field. Thane fired a throw field to know them off the platforms. Tali was then knocked down by a wave of energy.

"Tali," he said coming to her side.

"I'm alright," she said. "It lost a lot of power, before hitting me." John looked over his cover, another Scion joined the other, making it an even tougher battle. harbinger broke free from its stasis and began firing war fields at John again; Thane fired a warp field to get its attention. it worked as it was now targeting the Drell. Tali drained its barriers to refill her won with John blasting the armor with hsi pistol finally killing it.

"Forty-one percent complete," EDI said.

"Come on, EDI. Speed it up," Thane spoke up.

"More platforms incoming," John said. The platform landed and more Collectors stared to fire. one them started to glow.

"**ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL**," Harbinger said. The glowing collector fired a slow biotic field that almost knocks John and Tali out of cover. "**YOU WILL FAIL, SHEPARD.**"

"FUCK OFF," John growled as he blasted it with a particle cannon. Thane threw a warp field as Harbinger and it dissolved into dust. Tali summoned Chatika again to draw the Scions fire and blasted the Collectors off the platform with her Geth Shotgun.

"EDI?"

"Eighty-four percent complete."

"EDI, get out of here," John demanded.

"I am simultaneously fighting Collector firewalls in over eight thousand nodes, I am tasked to capacity."

"Fuck...," John cursed as he took out his particle rifle. John aimed at the mass effect field on the enemies platform. He then pulled the trigger not one, not twice but three times. After the third shot, the platform with the scions crashed wildly into the oncoming platforms, causing Collectors to fall to death, along with the Scions. After a while, all was quiet, no more enemies came forward.

"I think that's all," Thane said. John and Tali sighs a breath of relief.

"Tali, you must manually re-establish my link to the command console," EDI said.

"You heard her, Rookie," John said. Tali nodded. He looked at Thane. "How are you holding up?"

"Fine, John, the Collectors are stronger than I thought," he said. "We have long road ahead of us."

"Damn straight," John said.

"John, you need to see this," Tali yelled. John and Thane went to Tali.

"What's up, Rookie?"

"EDI," Tali asked. "Tell him exactly what you told me."

"Of course, first, I have regain control of the platform," she said.

"Knew you could do it, EDI," John said. "So what's up?"

"I found data to help us navigate the Omega-4 Relay successfully," EDi said. "I have also found the Turian distress call that served as a lure for this trap. The Collectors were the source. It is unusual."

"How so," Thane asked.

"Turian emergency channels have secondary encryption. It is present, but corrupted in the message," Garrus said. "EDI contacted me about this and I got the info. It is possible the TIM would believe the distress call was genuine."

"Why are you so sure?"

"I found an anomaly with Cerberus detection protocol. He wrote them," EDI said. "Officer Vakarian got the info straight with the distress called and he played it backwards. If you listen closely, you will hear the Illusive Man's voice."

"He know it was a trap? Why would he send us into a trap," Joker asked.

"I don't know and I don't care because now, Mr. Illusive is on my hit list," Ragan said. "You don't send someone to in a trap that you spent over four billion credits to fix one person."

John clenched his fist. "Does it matter? That son of a bitch sent us right into Collector hands," he growled.

"Cerberus is not know for its good faith," Thane said calmly.

"Uh... Commander. We've got another problem, the Collector ship is powering up," Joker said. "You need to get out of there; we're not losing you and the Normandy again."

"I do not have full control of their systems. I will do what I can. Sending co-ordinates for shuttle extraction," EDI stated while their omni-tools beeped.

"Let's move people, double time," John ordered.

The platform they were on descended to the ground. The team made their way to the shuttle co-ordinates. "Around the corner. Take the door on your right," EDI said. A door opened up and the team ran down the path. They heard the sound of buzzing wings.

"John, incoming," Tali said.

The team got to cover. Thane three the first Collector out of the air and into the ravine. John threw a singularity field at the Collectors before they landed and followed it up with a warp field. They heard animalistic growls in front of them, it was husks and they were coming fast. Tali summoned Chatika, to divert their attention; the husks attacked the drone until it exploded. The team hurried to the down the battles were fierce, and the battle were made more difficult by the exploding abominations chagrin the squad, Thane pushed them back with a throw, while John froze it and shattered against the wall. Tali sabotaged the Collector's guns; causing them to disintegrate from the eruption of power.

"I am opening a door on the far side of the room," EDI said. A crab-like husk floated towards the team along with regular husks running alongside its flank.

"Rookie and Thane, do it," John ordered. Thane got out the Hydra and fired at the new husks along with John. Tali go the arc projector out and fired at the husks on the ground. Collectors came in and to support the huge husk. 'Now's a good time as any' John thought. John closed his eyes and focused on the Collectors nearest to the husks. A blue mass effect enveloped the collectors and fired on the husk.

"What was that," Tali asked.

"A skill I learned from Samara, dominate," John said. "It hi-jacks an organic's mind and fights its allies."

Tali's eyes went wide. "You can indoctrinate organics?" John shook his head.

"Nope, unlike indoctrination, it will wear off, it's kind of like when you hack mechs and geth," he said. "The problem is I can't sustain it for very long and I get tired easily."

"Uh...,"

"Don't worry I'm only using it on husks and collectors, promise."

"Good," she said. The Collectors finished the husk and the team then fired on the remaining enemies. They moved to the door only for the door to close on them.

"Uh, EDI? Problem," John said.

"A temporary setback on Firewall 3217. Rerouting commands through Firewall 7164," she said. "I've opened a door on the opposite wall. I will keep it open as long as I can." The door opened.

"You got at least five minutes before they are at full power," Ragan said. "I suggest that you make haste or... well... you know and I won't be able to save you when they destroy us."

"Down there," Thane pointed. "Isn't that where we came in?

"We're getting close to the end, we need to hurry." They ran through the ship fighting more of the Collectors. Abominations came charging at the team. John used dominate, to control the abomination and caused it to run to its allies and take them out.

"**ASSUMING CONTROL**," Harbinger said. Tali's drone exploded and kill more Collectors "**LEAVE THE DEAD WHERE THEY FALL.**"

"Thane," John ordered. Thane fired the Hydra at Harbinger while John fired at the possessed Collector with Biotic Maelstrom.

"**YOU WILL KNOW PAIN, SHEPARD**," Harbinger said as it dissolved to ash.

"Not today," John growled. They moved through the corridor, John's comm beeped.

"Uh, Commander? Hate to rush you, but those weapons are close to being online," Joker said. "Might want to double time, before the Normandy is... well you know, blown up again! And this time, it won't be my fault."

"Almost there, Joker," John said. The door opened to reveal husks. "We might be a little late."

"We got this, John," Tali said getting out the arc projector. The shock stunned the husk, while Thane used the throw field to knock them down. The team ran passed the fallen husks to the the extraction point.

"We're out of time, Commander! We have to go," Joker yelled. The team go to the shuttle with husks chasing them.

"Go, go, GO," John said. The shuttle roared and flew back to the Noramndy, while the Collector ship was coming alive.

"Shore party back on the Normandy. CXO Shepard stands relieved," EDI said.

"Got it, strap in people, we're out of here," Joker said. John and Tali ran to the cockpit of the Normandy as Joker was frantically getting the ship to move. The engines hummed and the Normandy flew away from the Collector ship. The Collector ship glowed and fired its weapon, and the Normandy swerved left and right. The ship fired again and its weapon grazed the side of the ship, thankfully Tali's shield upgrade and Ragan's reinforced barrier reflector for the Normandy softened the blow and shot back. "I can't dodge this guy forever, EDI; get us the hell out of here!"

"Specify a location, Mr. Moreau," EDI said. The Normandy was dodging the partice weapon, but barely. The Collector ship, despite its size was quite agile.

"Earth," Ragan said. "Sol Relay four five zero point two two five nine ED, protocol Alpha Red-one three Texas."

"Engaging mass effect core," she said. The instruments beeped, they were being locked on and the ship was getting ready to fire. A straight on hit would be the end of the Nornmandy. The engines hummed and the Normandy engaged FTL engines, the cruiser blasted off as the Collector ship fired. "No enemies sighted." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good job, all of you," John said.

"No problem. I rather be alive than a smoked husked," Ragan said.

"No problem, Commander," Joker said with a smirk.

"Of course, Shepard," EDI said. Tali spoke up.

"I'm going to go and see if your crazy stunt did something to the engines," Tali said. "I'll see you later John." John kissed her forehead.

"I'm coming with you," Ragan said while getting up from the seat. "It may have been too much that this was a sudden evasion and the drive core and other machines may not be working correctly."

"Later Rookie," John said. He then grew serious. "I need to talk to TIM and Hackett after Ragan and Tali get this done."

"I figured you had a few words for him," Joker said. "Give him hell."

"I plan to," John said. After the repairs John and Ragan made his way to the comm room; the crew saw the two Commanders and instantly got out of their way. They never seen John and Ragan so pissed before, whatever happened, all they knew was that TIM was going to get an earful and Hackett may if he was part of it. John went in and pressed the button and TIM was there sitting in his chair as usual. Hackett's hologram comes up and looks at John's face. Then they saw Ragan, TIM quickly flinched.

"Shepard, it looks like EDI and Ragan extracted some interesting data from the Collector ship," TIM said. "I see you brought Ragan with you this time."

"Cut the fucking bullshit," Ragan said while pointing at TIM. "I knew I couldn't trust you, we got something interesting from the Collector ship. EDI told us the call was from the Collectors what the fuck?! Explain!"

"We're at war. The Collectors are taking humans and every minute we waste is one more we give the enemy to prepare," TIM said. "I won't apologize for taking initiative."

"Fuck you, I know the stakes, we're supposed to be on the same side, and yet you seem to work very hard to fuck us over. Getting me killed is part of your plan," John asked.

"John, please calm down," Hackett said. "I don't know what is going on but luckily I warned you about this."

"That you did, Admiral," John said.

"Without that information, we won't reach their homeworld and you and every other Human including me might as well be dead," TIM said. "Are you willing to break off our partnership, and risk Humanity's fate?" HE then smoked a drab and looked directly into John's eyes. "Are you willing to risk Tali'Zorah's fate?" John glared at him.

"No," John said through gritted teeth. John hated this, TIM knew he would never risk Tali's safety, no matter what, and was using his love for her against him. He hated his guts.

"Let me tell you Illusive Man," Ragan said. TIM looked at him with wide eyes. "You have some fucking ass nerve to do this. You spent over four billion - FOUR BILLION - credits to bring my cousin alive and you nearly gave him to the Reaper's hands. I thought you were the type of person that wanted the Reapers stopped, not be be unstoppable."

TIM lowers his head in defeat. "Fine, you made your point. Okay, regret that but you have to understand something, no data, no stopping the Reapers. Yes, it was a trap, but I was confident in your abilities. And they didn't anticipate EDI. I needed the Collectors to believe they had the upper hand, telling you could have tipped them off, besides I was confident you would succeed." John clenched his fist, TIM had him, as much as he hated what he did, he had a point, every angle had a point and he hated that.

"You shouldn't have done that. You should have told the truth to them," Hackett said. "But I call it a win because we got the data we needed."

"Never again, TIM, never again," Ragan said. "Next time you do this, I will find you and kill you. I will personally get to the Shadow Broker and get the info I need to find you and then I will kill you."

"Understood," TIM said with fear. Hackett and John understood why, anyone that threates Ragan's family or friends, or even the Alliance, they are fair game to be killed by Ragan himself.

"What did you got from EDI's data mine," John said.

"EDI confirm our suspicions. We had about ninety of them," TIM said. "The Reapers and the Collectors uses an advanced IFF that the relay recognize, we need that IFF."

"How do we get it," Ragan asked.

"An Alliance science team recently determined that the Great Rift on Klendagon is actually an impact crater from mass accelerator weapon," Hackett said. "A very old mass accelerator weapon, we sent a team to find the weapon or its target. They found both, the weapon was defunct, but it helped us plot flight path of its target: a thirty-seven million old derelict Reaper."

"Let me guess, you want me to find it," John said.

"This is too important, we need that IFF," TIM said. "I'll forward the co-ordinates to Joker; in the meantime you should tell your crew I didn't risk them unnecessarily."

"Yeah, whatever. Just remember what Ragan told you," John said with a smirk.

Laster after the meeting, he went down to engineering to see Tali; he really needed some cheering up. When he got there he saw Tali surrounded by Lia and Gabby trying to cheer her up. It was quiet, deathly quiet unusual for the usually jovial engineering crew. Even Donnelly was quiet and serious, something was wrong.

"Rookie," John asked. Tali saw him and ran to him, hugging him tightly, crying. "Tali what's wrong?"

"I got a summons from the Fleet," Tali choked. "They've accused me and Kal for treason."

John eyes went wide. "What?!"

"John, I'm scared, I may never see my home again," Tali held on to John, her lover, her rock, and now her only protection against the unknown future.


	102. Chapter 66: Treason part 1

Chapter 66: Treason part 1

John was pacing back and forth fuming on the crew deck. Ragan got the news and was trying to hold his anger in. After Tali had calm down, she had told the team about the summons, she had to go back to the Migrant Fleet due to being charged with treason. The team was surprised to say the least; they knew Tali felt about her people and felt it was absurd that her people could even think that. Kal'Reegar was shocked when he was being accused as well. Ragan knew both of them and knew something wasn't right. And to John it was just plain insulting. "Treason," he asked angrily. "Fucking stupid, anyone with half a brain would know you would never betray your people."

"Same with you Kal," Ragan said. "I known you for a long time, and I know what the signs of treason is. Threatening people, killing high official officers of the Conclave or Admiralty board or even sending active Geth to the Fleet. But they don't have proof, I'm betting."

"Are you sure the message isn't fake? I mean someone could be screwing with you," Kaiden said.

"If they did, they have a fucked up sense of humor," John growled. Tali just shook her head.

"It's not fake, the encryption key, is used only by the Admiralty Board, the leaders of my people due to martial law," she said sadly. "It's real."

John looked at her and lowered his head, could it because of that? Tali had told him, she was very careful about throwing out his ties to Cerberus, especially after Tali's first team betrayed her due to their relationship. The Quarian people were not stupid, especially their leaders, if Tali and Kal was being put on trial, it had to be because of who she was with. it was basically his fault. "I-is it because, you're helping Cerberus," John asked sadly.

"I don't think so John, Rael'Zorah - Tali's father - gave permission for her to come here and got the transfer protocols and arrangements correct. So I don't think it is because of that," the CXO said.

"I'm not working with Cerberus, I'm working with you, plus I've gotten leave to serve with you again like Ragan said," Tali told him. John was relieved, it wasn't that. But question remained what were they charging her with. Tali sighed and shook her head. "I have no idea what they're accusing me of, you would think I'd remember if I betrayed the Fleet."

"Same here," Kal said. "I have been loyal since I was born. It is one reason why I joined the Marines. I mean, if you accuse a soldier for treason like this, then something big must be happening."

"You're accused for treason, and yet they haven't told both of you what you're charged with," Garrus said. "That's in itself suspicious."

Tali sighed. "Either way, I have to return to the fleet."

"What happens when a Quarian is accused for treason," Kaiden asked.

"I'll tell you what I learned while being there," Ragan started. "A hearing with members of the Admiralty Board acting as judges and jury. There are five but since two of them have a history with Tali and Kal, they have to recuse. Meaning Rael'Zorah and Shala'Raan are unable to do so. Since Han'Gerrel has history with Kal but he can't due to the fact that would only have two Admirals left. There has to be an odd number."

"Great, your father is a member of the board, and he can't help," John said.

"No, he'll have to recuse himself from judgment, not that it would matter with him, I can't even begin to image what he must be thinking," Tali said bitterly. "If I am convicted, I will be stripped of my ship name and exiled."

"You would be a nedas...," Lia gasped. Tali nodded sadly, and the room became silent. The fleet was everything to her and Kal, for her and Kal to be exiled would be the worst thing imaginable. John came over and raised her head looking in her eyes.

"Then I'll help, anyway I can," John said.

Tali blinked. "You don't have..."

"He does because by Quarian law, the Captain or Commanding Executive Officer of the ship that you serve on is your defense councillor."

"But I want to, after all the times you helped me, you think I'm just going to leave my girlfriend out to dry," John asked. "You're stuck with me, Rookie." Tali hugged him tightly.

"Saya sayang Kamu...," she said.

"And you know Garrus and I have your back," Kaiden said. Lia spoke up

"Me too...," she said. "I want to help too."

"Tali, you know I'm with you thick and thin," Jane said. "I'm sure that will listen to reason."

"I'm going to help. I have a few contacts," Ragan said. "Dei'Vedi vas Rayya can help us find out what is going on. Plus, I want the Admirals understand that you don't put false evidence on someone for no reason."

"I'm in as well," Grunt said. "Anything that deals with the crew and they need help, I'll help."

"Sure, why not. Could be fun getting them to listen," Kasumi said.

"That's if they are not like the Council...," Ragan said. "Oh, wait they are like that."

John smiled. "There you have it, Rookie, we're all with you."

Tali felt tears ran down her cheeks when hearing that, these were her crewmates, her friends, and her family, no matter the verdict, that would not change. "Terima kasih...," she said softly.

The mass relay flashed and the Normandy entered the Valhallan Threshold the current location of the Migrant Fleet. When they arrived, at first they didn't see anything, John had thought they somehow missed them, but Tali told them to wait a moment. And from behind the two suns came a large moving mass, The Mirgrant Fleet, it was a sight to see. The smaller ships reminded him of the architecture of the buildings on Haestrom and bringing in the rear was the larger ships, including the largest capital ship, the Skaza, the meeting ship of the Admirals and where the trail would take place.

"Wow, when you said the Flotilla was huge, you weren't kidding..." Joker said in awe.

"This is Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya requesting permission to dock with the Rayya," she said.

"This is Kal'Reegar vas Neema nar Pouidla, requesting permission to dock with the Rayya."

"Our systems have you flagged as Cerberus and Alliance. Verfiy," a male voice said.

"After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began," they both said.

"Permission granted, welcome home Tali'Zorah and Kal'Reegar."

"We'd like a security and quarantine team to meet us. Our ship is not clean."

"Understood. Approach exterior docking cradle seventeen."

Tali sighed. "I hope this goes well," she said. John put his hand on her shoulder

"It will, you've got friends behind you all the way," he said with a smile. "And me." Tali smiled.

"Ma'am, ready," Reegar said.

John, Kal, Tali, Ragan, Jane, Kasumi, Grunt, Lia, Garrus, and Kaiden all came onto the Rayya and were met with armed guards. In front of the guards, was a Quarian man in a brow and red suit, he raised his arms and his men put away their weapons. "Welcome back Tali, Kal. I wish it was under better circumstances," he then looked at the group and saw Ragan. "Ah, Ragan. Good to see you." Ragan bowed in Japanese traditions.

"I wish it was too. John, this is Kar'Daana vas Rayya, Nakhoda of my brithship," Tali said.

"Nakhoda Shepard, Tali'Zorah ha told me a lot about you," Danna said. He offered his hand and John shook it. The captain looked at Garrus and Kaiden. "I see you have brought quite the company Tali."

"Don't mind us, we're just here to give Tali our support," Kaiden said.

Kar nodded. "Good, she will need all the support she can get. I see you also brought a Krogan here. Nice to see they aren't all like the ones that have harsh views to Turians and Salarians."

"Do you know what I'm being tried with," Tali asked.

Kar'Danna sighed. "You and Kal have been accused ofr bring active geth to the fleet."

Tali's eyes went wide, Ragan narrowed his eyes at Tali. "That's insane; I never brought back active Geth, only parts and pieces.

John put his hand on her. "We'll get there when we get there." Tali nodded. Ragan thentook a deep breath. Kar'Danna then noticed Lia.

"I don't I think I've seen you before, and I remember everyon, what ship you hail from," he asked.

"None, I'm an Anak, I wasn't born on a ship," Lia said.

"I see, I'm afraid you're not allowed on any of the ships."

"Why not," John asked.

"She is an anak, a child of nedas, the exiles, they are considered a danger to the fleet," he said. "She must leave." The soldiers came to restrain Lia, but Garrus and Kaiden got in front of them. "I'm just doing my job, Nakhoda."

"I'm sorry but by law, if a child of an exiled is here, she can return to come on the ship if provided with one of the following: A Spectre or Justicar, part of a crew that has a crewmember that is being trialed for exile, or has important evidence that involves with a war about to come."

"She's a member of my crew, just like Tali, you can allow that, can you," John asked.

"Very well, can't argue with the laws, but she is your responsibility, understood?" John nodded. "Good, go down the hall, the trial will be ready shortly, good luck. Tali'Zorah and Kal'Reegar, Keelah Se'lai."

Tali looked back at Lia. "I'm sorry about that," she said.

"Why am I considered a danger to the fleet," she asked.

"Because, you might want revenge for your parent's exile," Tali said. "It was believed for a long time that an anak might seek retribution for what was done to their parents, so they changed the policy to if parents are exiled, the children may stay under the certain circumstances Ragan said."

"That's alright, I wasn't bothered," Lia said.

"Let's go," John said. As they walked to the trail floor, the team was getting looks from the other Quarians, they were something of a strange, five Humans, a Krogan, Turian, an anak, and a Quarian on trial. They then met a Quarian woman, Tali's eyes lit up and she hugged the woman.

"Auntie Raan," she said. "John'Shepard vas Normandy nar Mindior, this is Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, she's a friend of my father."

"Welcome back Tali'Zorah vas Normandy, I could only delay them for so long," she said. Tali let go of Shala and looked at her.

"Vas Normandy," Tali said.

Shala nodded sadly. "The Admiralty Board have moved to try you under that name, due to your departure from the Neema."

"Why," Ragan said.

Tali lowered her head. "They stripped me of my name already; tehy must really think I'm guilty, she said.

"So you won't be helping us," Ragan said.

"No, due to my history with Tali's family, I must recuse myself, like her father. It's good to see you again, Ragan."

"Likewise," Ragan said. "But right now we need to know who will be the defense councillor for Tali."

"I guess we should get started. I know Ragan told me it is me or him that will represent her?"

"That is correct. Due to Captains and Commanding Executive Officers are the highest rank of ship civilian safety. But it is up to you," Raan said.

"Ragan, you will represent me?"

"I'll do everything I can to help you," he said. "But I rather have John do this. I will help him with laws."

"I'll do everything I can to help you," John said walking to the plaza. The rest of the team followed him leaving Tali and her aunt.

"So this is the great Commander John Shepard, you told me about," Shala started. "You were right, he is handsome."

Tali blushed. "Makacil!"

"Don't worry; I know he is yours, Tali," Shala said smiling. "I can see it in his eyes, the love he has for you, making him the one defending you might be your best chance." She chuckled softly. "How will your father will react I wonder?"

Tali paled. "I don't even want to know," she said. "He might exile me when he finds out, I... uh... gave myself to him." She blushed.

Shala's eyes went wide. "You foolish girl, you could have..."

"I know, I took precautions and John had a decontamination unit istalled in his room, so I could be out of my suit," she said. "He always does that, thinking of others, I love him."

Shala shook her head. "I'm not happy with you taking risks with your health, but I'm happy you found someone who loves you back," she said. "What even happened, go in peace little on." She hugged Tali.

"Thank you, Makacil." The Quarians in the plaza all took their seats, along with Garrus, Kaiden, Lia, Jane, Kasumu and Grunt. Tali walked beside John, to await her fate. Tali took a deep breath. When everything quieted down, Shala spoke.

"This Conclave is brought to order. Blessed are the Ancestors who kept up alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season. Keelah Se'lai."

The whole plaza said, "Keelah Se'lai."


	103. Chapter 66: Treason part 2

Chapter 66: Treason part 2

"The accused Tali'Zorah vas Normandy has come her with her Captain and Commanding Executive Officer to defend herself against the charge of treason," Shala said. Tali looked to John and Ragan, as they was about to speak one of the admirals interrupted.

"Objection! A human has no business at a hearing involving such sensitive military matters," a Quarian in red and white said. They guy was loud and obnoxious, very similar to Udina, back on the Citadel. John leaned in to Tali.

"Rookie, who's the jack-off," he asked.

"Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib Qwib," she answered. "A suit-wetter of the highest order." John looked at her confused, he was not familiar with the term. "He wants to make peace with the Geth, he even went as far as saying our exile was our own fault." John was surprised to hear this, there was actually a Quarian willing to make peace with the Geth, now he had heard everything.

"Interesting, wait... Qwib Qwib," John asked with a raised brow.

Tali shook her head. "Don't ask, he will never stop," she said.

"Then by rights, you shouldn't have taken her name and made her vas Normandy," Ragan said. "By all rights, Commander Shepard and I have rights to be here to defend a fellow crewmate."

Korris shook his head. "Objection withdrawn."

"John'Shepard and Ragan'Shepard vas Normandy, your crewmember, Tali'Zorah stands accused of Treason. Kal'Reegar stands account for Attempt of Treason. Will you one of you speak for them?"

John walked up to the podium, Tali was little worried about John losing his temper, the Spectre had a very short fuse, especially when it came to people he cared about and him picking a fight with the Admirals was not what they needed. He promised to keep it under control, hopefully. "If it helps Tali, but in her heart she is Tali'Zorah vas Neema, a proud member of the migrant fleet." He said. He then gazed at Korris. "I regret that her captain is forbidden to stand at her side today."

"Nobody has been forbidden for anything! It is simple...," he was interrupted by a Quarian male.

"Lie to them if you must, Zaal'Koris, but don't lie to me and expect me to be silent! The Human is right," the Quarian in grey said. Korris instantly shut up, John was impressed with the guy, strong voice, and a presence that said respects me, all the signs of a military man. The man was basically a rougher version of Hackett, Ragan, or Anderson.

"Who's this guy,"

"Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema, he's an old friend of my father, he is also leader of my chosen ship, the Neema," Tali explained. The two admirals continued to argue, John and Tali were starting to wonder when they going to get to the charges."

"Admirals, please. Shepard's willingness to represent Tali'Zorah is appreciated, even if he is a Spectre," that shut the two up and Tali shook her head. 'I wonder how much it would be 'appreciated', if the rest of my people knew the truth about John and me.' Shala's voice shook her of her thoughts, it looked like now they were going get serious finally, Tali swallowed hard as the Admiral gazed at her.

"Tali, you are accused for bringing active geth to the fleet and Kal is accused for supporing the nature. What says you," Xen said.

"How could she bring active Geth to the fleet while serving on the Normandy," Ragan asked.

"To clarify, Ragan'Shepard, Tali isn't being accused bring back entire units, only parts that could spontaneously reactivate." Tali shuddered at her voice it was like ice on the spine, she never liked Xen, even as a child, she sensed something off about her. Like Korris, she too wanted to reunite the Geth, but it wasn't as benevolent as Korris wishes, she wanted to return the Geth to servitude adn like Koris, her dream was also crazy.

"But I would never send active geth to the fleet! Everything I sent was disabled and harmless," Tali pleaded.

"Then explain how the Geth seized the lab ship where your father is working," Koris said. The audience erupted in sounds of worry and confusion. Garrus and Kaiden looked at each other. Grunt had a worried face. Kasumi and Lia were in shocked.

"Order," Shala yelled. "Order in the court."

Tali's eyes widen. "W-what are you talking about? W-what happened," she asked distressed. The grumblings of the crowd grew even louder as Shala tried desperately to quiet down the audience.

"I said order," she yelled again. The sounds died a little.

"As far as we can tell, Tali, the Geth may have killed everyone on the Alarei... your father included."

"What? Keelah, no...," she said.

Ragan clenched his fist. "I though Quarians valued family, how could you spring this on her in the middle of her Goddamn trial," John asked angrily.

Kasumi slapped her face when she heard her big brother cuss at the high ranking officers. Something about this wasn't going to be good.

"Our apologies. Tali should have been informed," Shala said while giving a murderous glare at Koris.

"John, we have to take back the Alarei," Tali said.

"The safest course would be to destroy the ship...," Koris said before Ragan pointed at him.

"You destroy that ship, then you are just like other people in Human history. Terrorists," Ragan said. "There might be people on there right now as we speak and you want to kill them. And guess what, you destroy that ship with an admiral on the Admiralty Board, you will be placed on treason and exile won't be your lest worries because you would be executed, you bosh'tet." Koris was struck back when he heard that.

"You attend to retake the ship? This proposal is extremely dangerous," Shala said.

"You all know what I'm capable of," Ragan said. "You sent me to clear a Geth platoon that infiltrated the Diode a year ago. And when Cerberus infiltrated the Idena. With Commander John Shepard and anyone that is willing to help it should be passed. You value Family first then your crew and then the people. With your permission admirals, yes the good of the fleet must come first and Tali needs to find her father."

"Agreed, and if you die on this worthy mission, Tali, we'll see your name cleared of all charges."

"We can discuss that later," Koris said.

Ragan pointed his finger at him, "I'm sorry but by Quarian law your law that is called Keelah'Ddila vas Rannoch of Trial for Treason, subsection five paragraph eight sentence one, if the person that is accused of treason is killed while retaking the fort, live ship, or anything that deals with Quarian, all charges must be terminated immediately." Gerrel smiled and Koris looked down at the ground. Xen was laughing to herself. "And Tali won't die. John'Shepard vas Normandy will make sure of it." Gerrel chuckled.

"Well said."

"Then it is decided. you will attempt to retake the Alarei," Shala said. "YOu are hereby given leave; a shuttle will be waiting for you at the secondary docking hanger, be safe Tali, the hearing will resume upon your return, or upon determination that you have been killed in action." JOhn and Tali looked at one another then looked at Ragan. As the crowd dispersed, Tali and John walked to the others. Ragan stayed there looking over the laws he has on his omni-tool. John looked at Tali checking if she was okay, she looked very much shaken, if it was true that her father was dead, would she be able to go on? That was what he was worried about.

"Tali," Lia said giving her a hug. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said.

"Don't try to hide it kid," Kasumi said. "I'm sure that your father is alive."

John grabbed her hand. "You sure? They were throwing heat your way," he said.

"Thank you, John, the admirals sounded so sure, but..."

"I know, we'll find him."

"So I guess next stop is the Alari," Garrus said. "Let's do this."

"I'll stay here with Lia, Jane and Kasumi. Ragan has to stay I'm guessing," Kaiden said. The team nodded and wetn on their way. Tali met with Shala, she was ver upset with her.

"You set me up Shala, you told Nakhoda Danna not to say anything! I don't hear about my father until the trial, why?

Shala lowered her head. "I'm sorry child, the admirals need to hear the shock in your voice, otherwise they wouldn't let you take the ship back," she said. "That is your best change; we can't afford sensitivity, Tali. Plus Koris already deemed you exiled."

"You went to far, how..." John started. Tali puts a hand on his shoulder and John looked at her. "But Tali..."

"It's alright, she's right," she said. "I don't like it, but she's right."

"There seem to be other arguments other than Tali's trial," Garrus said.

"You caught that? Yes, the Geth presence makes for a touch issue," Shala said. "The board is determining to whether focus on colonial development and retaking the homeworld."

"Retaking the homewold is a death wish," Ragan said while walking up. "If you do that, you will just forfiet your lives to the Geth. They will be stronger than to the Reaper code that Saren had two years ago. And if you go to war, they may find a way to get a hold of the Reapers and find a way to kill you all."

"You're thinking of war? With the Geth," Tali asked shocked. While she hated the Geth very much, she was reluctant with war with Geth, especially when they might need the fleet when the Reapers finally show up. A war would complicate things.

"I'm not but others are. Gerrel is, same with Xen, and your father was. Koris and I were voting for colonizing. But the decision is not made."

"That's a bad idea, the first time you barely escaped them," Garrus said. "NOw it would be a massacre."

"Garrus is right, Shala," Ragan then looked at her in the eyes. "Is it worth seventeen million people to die because of war that the Admirals want?"

"We grow tired of wondering the stars. We want our home back, we have paid enough for our mistakes," Shala said sadly. "I'm not giving you my opinion, just telling you which way the wind is blowing."

"I can understand that, wanted to go home," John said. "I lost everything to the Batairnas, you have my sympathy. But I haven't went to war with Batarians because of it. I went to war with Batarians because of their attacks on Human colonies." Shala nodded.

"I know. I read your dossier when the Alliance and Cerberus asked for Tali and Kal. Good luck on the Alarei," she said. "Ragan, John, please take care of Tali. If Rael is dead, she is the only family I have left."

"We will," Ragan said.

John and the team took a shuttle from the Skaza to the Alarie. The Alarei was a small ship, even by Quarian standards, but like most ships in Xen's science fleet they were the most advanced technology wise. As they entered the room they saw two Geth troopers activate and start shooting. Tali hacked the troopers and they started to shot at each other. They were quickly reinforced by more Geth troopers and Geth hunters. The hunter came in close while the troopers were giving firing support. Garrus overloaded the hunter's shield as Tali summoned her drone behind it. The drone shocked the hunter, whittling it systems down; the hunter shoots Chatika and explodes taking the hunter with it. The troopers fired on Tlai and Garrus locking them in cover, John froze one of the troopers ahd slammed it against the wall. Garrus went out of cover and finsihed the other one with his sniper rifle.

When the battle was done, they looked through logs, most were ordinary stuff, project budgets, personal logs, or extranet sites left open before the attack. Nothing of value as evidence for Tali's trail, until Garrus spoke up. "Tali, I think I found something." Tali and John went to Garrus' side and the Turian played a log, in it was a Quarian dressed in black and yellow.

"Something slowing the systems. We're taking down firewalls to rebalance load distribution," the log started. "Rael'Zorah doesn't know about this. That we are using the Geth parts that his daughter brought. He is doing research by testing weapons on the parts and seeing if there is a way to counter everything.

"What does this mean," John asked.

"I don't know there is not enough info to go on," Tali said. John then starts downloading it and uploads it to Ragan's omni-tool.

"Ragan, got some evidence here, uploading it to you," John said while speaking through the comm link.

"Got it," Ragan said.

The team went into the next room with an inactive drone. Tali scanned the drone. "This is one of the units I sent my father. Look like parts from disable repair, plus a reflex algorithm that I don't recognize. I go this one on Haestrom."

"Haestrom was a warzone, how did you salvage gear in all that," Garrus said.

Tali giggled a little. "These suits have more pockets than you think; we have learned to salvage whatever we can, whenever we can," she said. "Within reason, we're not Vorcha, we repair what people throw away."

"How did you get them to your father," John asked.

"Sometimes I left drops in civilzed areas, anyone on Pilgrimage would see it and hlep ship it home," she said. "It had to be working order, and be able to intergrate into other technology, anything new had priority, and technology the geth had developed, or modified, to give us clues to their thinking."

"Does this thing help?"

"No. I don't know, John, I checked everything I sent here," Tali said. "I passed up great finds, because I thought they were too dangerous, or prone to self-repair and reactivation," she lowered her head. "I don't know which is worse, I got sloppy, or someone on father's crew did this."

"You'll get through this, and if we find your dad, he can explain this," John said grabbing her hand. Tali smiled. As they went down the hall, they heard sounds of battle.

"What the hell," Garrus asked. "Survivors?"

"It looks like it," John said.

"We have to hurry," Tali said. The teamr ran down the hall. They saw a lone Quarian in a green and red suit fighting the Geth. The man went out of cover and fired taking down three Geth troopers all head shots, and impressive display. However things changed when more Geth started to flood the room, and soon he would be flanked. The team went to join the battle, Tali summoned her drone to draw their fire as John sprayed the Geth with SMG. Two troopers took their place and fired on them, Chatika intercepted the troopers and stunned them letting John lifted them up with a singularity field, while Garrus gave sniper support. Four more troopers fell thanks to the Quarian sabotaging their weapons. A shot whizzed by the Quarian's head, it was Geth hunter getting closer to him, the Quarians overloaded the hunter's shields and fired a concussive round into the chest of the hunter cuasing it to fall. Before it could get up, the Quarians blasted the hunter's head with a shotgun balst, finishing the fight.

The Quarians got up and approached John, the Spectre took a look at him, his suit looked ragged meaning he was fighting geth for a while and he was the only survivor. From the way he walked, it carried an air of cofiedence and commande, definitely the leader. "You human, what are you doing on this ship," he asked. He gazed at Garrus as he appraoched the two men. "And a Turian too?"

"The board said we could retake the Alarei," Garrus said.

"Why would they...?"

"We're here to help our friend; she's being tried for treason," John said. "Retaking it can clear her."

His eyes widen. "T-treason?1 Tell me who is your..." Before he could finish, Tali spoke up, as she approached them. Her arms were crossed, waiting for an explanation.

"Hello, ayah. Or in English, father."


	104. Chapter 66: Treason part 3

Chapter 66: Treason part 3

Tali looked at her father, he was alive, part of her glad, although she had wish throttle him for everything. However this was not the time. "Tali...," Rael said. Tali took a deep breath tyring to keep her emotions together, she had so many questions no doubt.

"What is going on here, ayah," Tali asked. "Why are the Geth here? What have you done?"

Rael turned his back. "Some of my crew did this. I was testing Geth parts on different types of weapons. But they wanted to do it their way and it was using the Geth Consensus as a weapon. I was getting our home back the right way," he simply said.

She looked at the dead Quarian, not fare from them. "How? You let your crew do this," Tali asked angrily. Rael shook his head.

"I didn't know any of this. All I know was that the test I was doing were legal. I was using the parts to see if weapons have an effect on them," Rael said.

"Wait, how can you do that," Garrus asked.

"Your pilgrimage gift, Tali, was more helpful to our people than you think, with it we had a deeper understanding of how the Geth worked," Rael said. "And then we had a thought, what if we could use different types of weapons and see if they can work. As I did my tests, I tossed some of the parts away. I have a feeling that someone from my research team got the parts and made a Geth unit."

"So that's why you wanted me to go to Haestrom," Tali asked.

"Yes, but, we needed an intact Geth parts that were working," Rael explained. "With the parts working we can find weaknesses and it would take less shots to kill them. But that changed when someone made a Geth unit. The first target was me. They wanted me killed because if I found out about it, I had to report to both the Conclave and Admiralty Board."

"Shut the mouth before it speaks," John said. "Not smart."

"At least you did it legal..." Tali slid to the floor, reeling from the explanation. "You should have told me about this. I thought you were going to use it for something else, but to go to war. Shala already told us that you, Xen, and Gerrel are waiting to go to war."

"Yes, because I made a promise to you and your mother," Rael said. John and Garrus looked at each other.

"Bastard, you almost got your daughter killed," John growled. "She going to be exiled for this because of your crew mistakes."

"Why? Why didn't you find out about this sooner," Garrus asked.

"Like I said, I promised her mother," Rael said. Tali looked at him. "I promised her that I would build a house for Tali, I did for our family. I should have been more alert."

"What family," Tali asked. She glared at her father, and all of a sudden the memories of her childhood came flooding back. "All of the sudden, you care about our family? You who couldn't even be bothered see your own wife on her funeral."

"Tali... I..."

"How dare you use my mother as a way to justify this... stupidity," she growled. "Because of your actions and not being alert, I may never see our home again!"

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry," Rael said. Tali felt a pain in her gut when she heard that, he was sorry? It was too little too late, he had years to be a better father and he wasted on his duties. Sorry wasn't going to bring back the dead, sorry wasn't going to stop the other admirals from exiling her, and sorry was definitely not going to stop this feeling of betrayal.

"So am I," she said. "You didn't be alert and you let the crew do this. I wish I was never related to you," her voice was angered and Rael backed to the wall.

"how do we stop this," John asked.

"Their hub will be on the bridge. If the crew did it there. If you destroy it, their VI processes will stop forming new neural links."

Tali looked to Garrus and John and walked passed her father. If she was going to be exiled, the least she could do is stop the madness the crew did onto the fleet. "Let's go."

Rael grabbed her arm. "Wait where are you going," he asked.

Tali pulled her arm away. "To clean up your mess," she said coldly. "You won't stop it, I will."

As they enter the next room, Geth flooded the door downstairs. Since the room they were in was very small compared to the previous rooms, maneuvering proved to be difficult, so the team decided to keep the Geth pinned down the stairs. Tali hacked the first one to enter the room and the Geth in returned fired on its former ally. Garrus overloaded the enemies shield and pelted them with rounds from his assault rifle.

John lifted them with a singularity field and froze them; they shattered as they slammed into each other and the wall. When they were down, the Geth came from the balcony from the side, making them switch cover. It was a Geth rocket trooper, and it fired wildly as the team, bad news for the already damaged Alarei and the team inside. Tali summoned Chatika behind the rocket trooper, leaving it open to gun fire from John and Garrus. As the team walked through the ship, they found more and more logs of fallen Quarians, along with bodies. The most heartbreaking was a log of a female Quarian, right before she was killed she gave a heartfelt goodbye to her son, Jona, telling him to be strong and take care of his father. It was similar to what her cousin told her on his deathbed.

"I'm sorry...," she said. Tali felt a hand on her shoulder.

"How are you holding up, Tali," John said concerned.

She shook her head. "All for this, all to give me a house on the homeworld, and it's the crew's fault."

"It's is their own fault, Tali, all you were doing was helping your people and your father used your loyalty that is all. But the crew did the worse part, slapped your name while creating this."

"I should have questioned him more, i should do something, but I let this happen," she said. "I should have joined you on Freedom's Progress, if I did, maybe..."

"I don't that that would have changed anything, I have a feeling that even without you, this would have happened," Garrus said. "We're not going to let blame your father when it was the crew that did it."

"Thank you, you two, but it was my father that did this, my responsibility for cleaning his actions. Allowing the crew to do this is treason."

Just beyond the door were the hub and that caused of all the problems if they could get to it all of this would be over. But in the way were three troopers, two Geth hunters and a Geth Prime, they didn't seem to notice. John and Tali overloaded their shields while Garrus knocked down the first hunter with a concussive shot. The prime fired at the team and took cover, while the second hunter tired to flank the team. John took out his arc projector and fired at the Geth. Tali then hacked the hunter. With the Geth were fighting each other, Garrus shot the first hunter's head causing it beep and explode. John finished the fight by lifting the hunter and prime up and blasting them with a warp causing a biotic explosion. After the battle was over, John and the team wetn to the hub.

"This console is linked to the main hub ay-Rael mentioned. Disabling it shuts down any geth we missed," she said. "It looked like some of the recording remained intact. They'll tell us what they did." Tali opened her omni-tool but then hesitated.

"You sure about this," John asked.

"No, but we have to. It's just as much as I am angry at him, part of me doesn't want to know he was doing nothing," she took a deep breath and opened the logs; it showed three Quarians.

"Do we have enough parts to bring online," the female one said.

"Yes, the new shipment will replace the old ones after Rael discards them," one of the male said. "We have to do this. Rael doesn't need to know about this. Let us add to more Geth to the network and see what happens."

"We're nearing the breakthrough, Sergeant; perhaps we should contact the Admiralty Board, just to be safe," the last Quarian said.

"No, it's too risky to do that and if they find out what we do, we will be court-martial and executed. No."

"We have an easier time of it if Tali'Zorah could send back more working materials," the female said.

"Absolutely not, I don't want Tali exposed from any political blowback," the first male said. "Leave her out of this, assemble the new geth with what we have, bypass security if need be. And if Rael does try to find out and contact the Conclave and Admiralty Board, kill him."

"Now you know everything...," Rael said while walking up to them.

"You let the crew deliberately networked the Geth to sapience to do these tests," Tali said. "They just broke our most sacred laws, laws that predate our flight from our homeworld." She shook her head. "When this comes up..."

"I know...," Rael said. "I would be stripped from all the records and exiled; it would be like I never existed, but I couldn't do anything, I just couldn't and now it is coming up.

"Why? You think I want this, or mom would want this," she asked angrily in tears. "To see you reduced to this, a traitor, a monster to our people because of your crew did this.

"No," he said. "Which is why you should give the evidence to the Board."

"So you can leave Tali holding the bag as the daughter of a war criminal," John said angrily. "To spend the rest of her life cleaning up your mess?"

"It is the only way, without this data, Tali is facing exile," he said.

"NO, you're not going take the easy way out," John said. "Ragan, got the final piece of evidence, sending it to you." A few seconds, his omni-tool beeps.

Rael looked at John as he walked to the hub. "What do you mean?" John pressed a few buttons and the logs were deleted.

"You get to stay on as a member of the board," John said. "In return you will vote against the war with the Geth, and you will vote for colonizing a new world.

"But...," John raised his hand as Rael started.

"It's better than Tali being the Last Quarian, because of your foolish mistake," John said. "Its hard work, but at least your people won't die like dogs." Rael was taken aback, to see an alien go so far to make sure his daughter didn't suffer for his mistake. It was almost unheard of. Ragan was one of the aliens he knew that would do this but John, something wasn't right and Rael had a hunch.

"Thank you, Human," Real said.

"Don't even think I'm doing this for you, I'm doing this because I can't stand to see Tali hurt," he said. "And Ragan will want a bone to pick with you. Let's go."

John and the team returned to the Skaza. While walking to the plaza, they discover the Admirals believing them to be dead and ready to pronounce judgment in absentia, even though it had been an hour at most since they left. The team walked in to the plaza, as they walked int he crowed gasped as they saw the supposedly dead Rael, walking with them, even the Admirals were surprised to see one of their own alive much less a survivor. Ragan was at the podium with a big smile.

"Sorry we're late," Tali said.

Shala stood up. "Keelah, Rael you're alive, how."

"John, Tali and their good friend Garrus saved me from the geth," he said weakly. "The Alarei is safe."

"You didn't waste time declaring us dead, I see," John said with a frown.

"Apologies, John, your success was... unexpected," Gerrel said.

The Spectre snorted. "I bet." Ragan shook his head.

"Did you find evidence on the Alarei," Shala asked.

"Yes, Tali's achievements are the only evidence you should need. Come on Tali, we're leaving," John said as he turned to walk away. The crowds started to murmur surprised that an alien would just outright defy the Admirals, the Admirals looked stunned as Normandy team began walking.

"What," Shala yelled.

"This is a formal proceeding," Koris said outright.

Ragan walked back and pointed at the Admirals. "Fuck you! This whole thing is a joke! None of you care about Tali." He looked at Koris, "You're trying to build sympathy for the Geth to stall the war effort!"

"T-that's completely..."

He then gazed at Gerrel. "And you want all the messy experiments covered up so you can throw your fleet at the Geth!"

"I...I..."

He then pointed at Xen, "And you. You are trying to have experiments allowed on the Alarei that will uses the Geth Consensus."

"What, now... that... it preposterous."

"Is it," Ragan said while typing on his omni-tool. He played the log of what the crew did and everyone was scared and shocked. "You see, the crew didn't want any one on the Conclave or Admiralty Board to know this because this law that they broke would not give them exiled but execution. The team was there working on Geth parts and made the Geth. Rael'Zorah didn't know about this. Rael'Zorah authorized to have Geth parts brought to the Fleet so that he can work on the parts on how weapons can work better on them. Thanks to that, the crew got smart and decided to use the Geth Consensus so that no one would be killed. A noble act but they also deliberately hooked Geth into sapience system of the Alarei, making everything chaos."

Ragan started to glow. "Do whatever you want with your toy ships, but leave my crew out of your political bullshit," John said angrily. Ragan looked at him. "And yes, I said my crew, because you don't deserve her, you can accept Tali's word or you can exile the woman who saved the galaxy from Sovereign and the Geth, who proved how valuable the Quarian people are to the galaxy!" The crowd was so moved by this aliens, this stranger's passionate support of Tali'Zorah that one by one of the crowed stood up roaring in support of Tali, the Admirals looked nervous. Shala desperately banged on the posts trying to get the crowd to settle down.

"Wait, wait," a Quarian said. It was Veetor'Nara nar Guidda. "Tali fought her way to save me and bring me back. She could have given me to Cerberus and the Alliance but she didn't. Same with Ragan."

"Damn straight," Kal said. "You are just doing this so that you can go to war and now you are pissing on everything that Tali has fought for. You exile her, you have to exile me as well."

"Same with me," Veetor said.

"Order," Shala yelled out in the room. "I will have order." The crowd quieted down. "Are the admirals ready to render judgment."

Tali looked down expecting the worst. "Tali'Zorah in light of your history of service, we do not find sufficient evidence to the convict. You and Kal'Reegar are cleared of all chargers. The crew that did the illegal experiments will be stripped from the records and all efforts will be made that the families are notified by this." Tali's eyes went wide as she heard the verdict, her legs left weak, John and Ragan actually did it. Her father's sin would be forgiven. "Rael'Zorah, since you were leading this research team, you are here by suspended until further notice due to not allowing the Conclave and Admiralty Board know about this." Tali wouldn't be exiled. "Commander Jonh'Shepard and Ragan'Shepard vas Normandy, please accept our appreciation and our apology."

"With all due respect, I didn't defend one of you, I defended one of mine," Ragan said.

"So you did, Ragan," Xen said.

"This hearing is concluded. Go in peace Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. Keelah Se'lai." The crowd dispersed.

Tali ran to Ragan and hugged him. "I can't believe you pulled that off. What you said..."

"I meant every workd," Ragan said before breaking the hug and walking away. Kaiden, Grunt, Kasumi, Lia, Garrus, and Jane came to them all happy with the verdict. Lia came hugging Tali as the two women laughed.

"Congrats, Tali," Kaiden said. He smirked. "Nice work Ragan, I think they pissed their suits. You make a good lawyer."

John smirked. "He does." Rael came up to them. "What do you want?"

"John can I speak to you and Ragan alone," he asked. John looked at the rest of the team and nodded. The team wetn to the ship.

"We're alone, what do you want," Ragan said.

"Thank you for what you did for my daughter," he said.

John frowned. "A little late to be caring about her now, don't you think?"

"I did this for her! I wanted to..."

"Bullshit! All Tali wanted was her father, you! And you twisted her loyalty for your test and then not know about the crew doing illegal experiments," Ragan said angrily. "FI it wasn't for Tali, I'd kill you myself when I saw you come to the plaza."

He walked away. Rael spoke up. "What is she to you Ragan?"

"She's a dear friend to me. I owe my life to her for saving me when Saren and the Geth attacked the Citadel."

John looked at him and shook his head. "I just hope you learn something about this."

"Yes, I did," Rael said. "Tell me, what is my daughter to you?"

"I love her, with all of my heart," he said. Rael looked at hime with wide eyes. "She deserves better," he walked away.

"I know, John, please take care of her," Rael said. "I am the only family she has left."

"Not the only family," John said. "She has the Normandy crew, she as me and my family."

He walked away leaving the lone Quarian with his shame.


	105. Chapter 67: Hardened

Chapter 67: Hardened

John and the team went back on board on the Normandy, about to leave the Vahallan Threshold and the Mirgrant Fleet. Although they were successful in getting Tali cleared, it wasn't without its pain. The Quarian was very silent since the ride back, no doubt about what her father's crew did. Tali spoke up. "I'm going to engineering, have some work to do," Tali began to walk away until John grabbed her arm.

"You sure Rookie," he said. Tali smiled softly and put an hand on John's.

"I'm fine John, a little work will keep my mind off stuff." John gave her a look of concern, not really convinced. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

John sighed and let her go. "Okay, but if you need anything, call me..." Tali nodded and went to the elevator

"Onii-chan, I'll look after Tali for you," Lia said.

John nodded. "Thanks kid." Lia went to the elevator, and John faced Garrus, Ragan, and Kaiden. "Well back to the grind."

The team scattered. Garrus went back to his quarters to calibrate the guns, even since they stalled the Thanix Cannon for the Normandy, Gabby and Donnelly have complained about the extra work load they had to do to the systems. Garrus understood that, so he asked Ragan if he can take a load off of the engineers. Luckily Ragan agreed with it. Garrus went to the terminal, and pressed a few buttons, the Turian frowned. The engineer's work on the system's lowered the accuracy ratio on the guns, and he had to set up all over again. Garrus typed on the terminal and it beeped, guns were all good... until Gabby or Donnelly complain about something else. But he might get Ragan to tell them about why the guns don't need to be messed with. The Turian cracked his neck; he was getting hungry, as he was walking to the crew quarters for his rations until omni-tool beeped.

"Huh," Garrus looked at his omni-tool and saw he got a message, the sender unknown. Garrus snorted. "Probably another ad for enlarging a sexual organ." For the lift of him, he'll never understand some of the scams these marketers put out, still it was strange for a message to not have sender name. And once more it was encrypted, and easy thing to past, Garrus opened the message and his eyes went wid.

"I heard you were looking for a Turian male, Sidonis, if you want him look for Fade on the Citadel," the voice said before the comm link was closed.

Garrus frowned. "Sidonis," he growled.

**Five months ago - Omega - Kenzo District**

_"And I win another game suckers," a Human said with a smirk. The Salarian and Batarian threw down their cards in frustration as the Human man gleefully claimed his spoils. These were Garrus' men hours before that fateful event. "Better luck next time, boys," Alexander Butler, was a Human biotic and all round smart sass, sure his mouth could get him in trouble with the team, but push comes to shove he was loyal to the group. He joined the group because he wanted a better life for his wife and daughter, his pride and joy on this hellhole station, Omega._

_The Salarian crossed his arms. "That's seven games in a row, how the hell does he do that," Slurek, was former merc working for Eclipse before joining the group and after he joined with C-Sec, he was loyal to Eclipse until he saw his group making deal with TYGER and Krimzon Guard for more cash. Disgusted by how low his group would go for extra credits, he quit the group, but not before killing every single member of his former team. Slurek was the foremost expert on explosives in the group._

_The Batarian snorted. "I think he's cheating..." Braz, a former tech officer for the Hegemony until his conscience had gotten the better of him. He was one of the batarians that attacked Eden Prime during the Skyllian Blitz, killing and taking people as slaves for profit until while looking for more victims came across an infant crying, a little boy, the slave market would pay top credits for infants. But something happened, for the first time he felt guilt, so he took the infant and defected from the Batarian government. At first, Garrus was reluctant recruiting him to his group, but when he saw Braz saving the lift of his adopted son and several people; it put his worries to rest._

_"Don't need to cheat, you guys suck at poker," Alex said. He looked at the Krogan cleaning his shotgun. "Zorbac, care for a game big guy?"_

_Urdnot Zorbac scoffed. "Unless that game consists of cracking skulls, leave me out of it." He went back to his shotgun. Zorbac was the team's resident muscle, and the team loner, the Krogan was a bounty hunter in his past, it was less about the money and more about the fight. Reminded Garrus of Wrex. However things changed when he was fighting members of the Blue Suns, and he gotten too cocky and was surrounded by YMIR mechs, until Garrus' crew helped him out. After the battle, Garrus offered membership but Zorbac refused until he was promised a good fight._

_"We'll take you on," and Asari said. Two of them came up to the table. Oya and Rena T'Koa, the biotic twins, former Asari commandos they were actually the easiest to recruit, they were like Garrus they had gotten tired of the red tap the Asari government had and went to Omega to change things. Of the two Oya was the one with the hot-blooded one, in contrast to the more reserved Rena._

_"Count us in also," a Drell and a Quarian came up to the table. Kila Roas, was the secruity consultant for a Hanar ambassador on the Citadel until he was framed for the murder of his client, a fugitive in Citadel space he went to Omega to escape persecution where he became a bouncer for Afterlife. One day, some Vorcah thought it would be a good idea to cause trouble, and they were shot in the head for their trouble, by Kila' sniper rifle. Impressed by his skill, Garrus offered him a spot on the team._

_Lez'Vanya vas Omega nar Omega was born and serves on the station, her mother was Anora'Vanya vas Selani, exiled for giving sensitive defense schematics to Batarians who had been contracted to upgrade the Flotilla's defense systems, but the Batarians shared the schematics with a priate gang, jeopardizing the Flotilla's security. Before she could be convicted, Anora'Vanya destroyed the pirate gang in a suicide attack, and was posthumously pardoned by the Admiralty Board. Little did the fleet know, Anora survive the seeing that she had nothing left for her old lift, she built a new one on Omega, only to be killed by a crazed Quarian hating serial killer. Her daughter went to avenge her death and was found by Garrus when Lez came close to being killed, from then on she stayed on the group's communication specialists due to her skill with tech._

_"Now, this is getting fun," Alex said. He then saw Garrus walking out of their base. "Hey, Batman care for a game?" Garrus sighed and looked at him, it was Alex's little nickname for him, apparently Garrus reminded him of Batman from an old movie Alex say, the Dark Knight back on Earth._

_"Do you have to call me that," he asked annoyed._

_"No, but it's fun."_

_Garrus shook his head. "Whatever, can't Sidonis called, he got a lead on the Blood Pack," he said. "Once I get conformation, we hit their operation tonight."_

_Rena looked at him. "Blood Back? Care for some back up," she asked._

_"No, if things go bad, Sidonis and I should be able to deal with it, stand-by for now." Garrus left to meet Sidonis. Lantar Sidonis was Garrus' second in command and the first perosn to join his team. They had met shortly after arriving on Omega, he found Sidonis in one of the lower levels of Afterlife, being beaten by an angry Krogan affiliated with the Blood Pack. Garrus stepped in to help and the two of them fight off the reaming mercs. Afterwards, the two of them decided to form a team to fight off the gangs. After building their team, they significantly dropped Omega's crime rate. Garrus went to an alley way in the Himlen district, a huge district near the slums, when he got there he waited for Sidonis, and waited for waited, but Sidonis never showed up._

_"Well' this was a waste of time," Garrus said about to get up. A shot rang out, and to the left and right of him were Blue Suns troopers. "Blue Suns? What are they doing here?" They fired again and Garrus ducked backed into the alley, when one of the mercs turned the corner Garrus let loose a round into one of their heads. The Suns kept flooding the way firing at the Turian, as time went by he found himself further away from where he started, it was because he was being led away. The alley was like one big maze and every corner had a squad of Blue Suns mercs waiting for him. It would be several hours until he could make it out of the maze and lose them Blue Suns. He took a shuttle back to his base but only to find it damaged and ransacked, a big battle had took place. When he got to the main area, his eyes went wide. "No..."_

_Bodies were everywhere, mostly the blue suns, and not only that the bodies of Rena and Kila, multiple shots the chest, with battle so intense the rest of the team couldn't get aid to them fast enough and they bled out. He went up the stairs and saw Gruld drapped across the ledge of the balcony, shot in the head for a Vorcha. "Shit they made this far up..." In the living quarters, Zorbac and Lez were sprawled against the floor, it looked like they were first ones killed and by sniper. The living quarters was by far the worst as he saw burn marks everywhere too being for heavy weapons, but not for gunships. In the center of the burned area, was Alex, Braz and Oya, mulated by somekind of machine fire, the Turian shook his head, how did they take out their team so easily. Then Garrus had a sickening thought, where was Sidonis? All this death and his second in command was nowhere to be seen. Garrus opened his omni-tool to contact Sidones, and all he got was a message say 'NO SIGNAL', Garrus frowned he was either dead or the signal was blocked. As he was about to contemplate the possibly of a betrayal, he heard a large mechanical whirl and a gunship was staring him in the face._

_"Fuck..." he would have to figure this out later._

**NOW**

Garrus gave a dark grin, he didn't know if this was real, but if it was he had a chance to avenge his men and pay an old friend back for his betrayal. "Chambers," he said through his terminal.

"Yes, Garrus?"

"Get me John and Ragan, I need to see them..."


	106. Chapter 68: Eye for an Eye part 1

Chapter 68: Eye for an Eye part 1

John and Ragan were reading an old books that Ragan brought. Spell Tomes that were the books flying around in Ragan's cabin when Miranda asked for his help with Oraina. It was fine with Ragan to read this but John wasn't sure until he found out that it was one of his ancestors, Merlin Shepard, that wrote the book. Both of them were avid readers even in their youth. But there was something soothing about losing yourself in another world, a happier world even if it wasn't real. "Onii-chan, can I come in," Lia asked as she knocked on the door. Ragan dropped his reading and came of the couch.

"Stay there, John, I'll deal with this," Ragan said. He walks to the door. "What's up Lia?" Something was wrong, the usually chipper Quarian lowered her head when Ragan opened the door, he had never seen her worried before.

"It's about Tali," she said. "I'm worried about her."

"John, front and center."

John walks up and looked at Lia, having a concerned look on his face. "She's been working very hard," Lia said. John just chuckled lightly; he thought it was something serious; Tali's had always been a hard worker.

"Is that all," Ragan asked. "Tali has always been like that." Lia shook her head.

"It's not the same, there is no joy or passion when does work," she said. "She's running herself ragged; Donnelly said that if she doesn't relax she's going to collapse from exhaustion. Donnelly and Gabby sent me to get you both." John frowned, now it was serious.

"Okay, we'll speak to her, thanks kid," John said. John and Ragan went down to engineering while Lia went to the mess hall, when they was down there the met with Gabby and Donnelly waiting outside of the room, they too with worried expressions on their face. Ragan told them to wait outside and John went in where he saw Tali working hard on the terminal. "Hey, Rookie."

"Sorry, John, can't speak now, need to balance the core's output," she said moving around. "Need to make sure the Normandy can handle all these upgrades." John looked at the terminal; it was all green across the board. He looked at Tali.

"Didn't you do that just before we hit the Collectors' ship," he asked.

"Never hurts to double-check, after all lives are at stake," she said. "Got to make sure, their lives aren't at risk..." John lowered his head, it's been several days since meeting her father on the Alarei and still she was thinking about what happened. John put his hand on Tali's shoulder.

"This is about your father isn't it," he asked softly. Tali stopped and started sobbing. John wrapped his arms around her. Tali hugged him tightly, letting everything go.

"All that death, all because...," she said as she sobbed.

"I know...," he said. "It's not your fault; you can't work yourself to death, just because of him." He looked at her; even with the mask he could tell she hadn't been getting any rest. Her movements were slowed, and her eyes didn't shine as brightly though her mask. "You haven't been sleeping, have you?"

Tali's head was on John's shoulder as she grabbed his waist. "I can't... every time I close my eyes, I see those killed from the logs... blaming me," she said shakily. "It's my fault... my fault for that stupid gift..."

"Shh... It's not your fault," he said. "I refuse to let you blame yourself for what Rael did, you're stronger than this.

"I... Thank you," she said. John kissed her forehead and looked into her eyes.

"Good, now get some rest," he said. "Captain's orders. Oh, and I'm having Ragan stay in the hallway so you don't escape." Tali nodded and went to their cabin. "You three can come out now." Donnelly, Gabby and Lia came out. "Ragan, stay in the hallway that is next to my cabin so Tali doesn't escape and get in here."

"Sir," Ragan said with a sharp salute. He then went to the elevator and headed to the Captain's Quarters.

"Thank you Commander, we were getting worried for the lass," Donnelly said. Gabby and Lia nodded.

"We'll pick up her jobs, while she rests," Gabby said. "Leave it to us." They all saluted and got to work, John's comm then beeped.

"What is it, Kelly," he asked.

"Garrus would like to see you and Ragan, he's been quite agitated," she said.

"Ragan will not be coming this time. I gave him an order and he is doing it right now." John went to meet Garrus in his Quarters. Kelly was right she said that he was agitated as he was pacing up and down his quarters. "You need to see me?"

"Yeah, I've finally tracked him down."

"Who," John asked.

"Lantar Sidonis, he was my second in command of my team during my stay on Omega," the way Garrus growled his name was nothing short of venom. As long as he known Garrus, he's been very laid back, but seeing him now, vengeful and murderous, John had to know what happened. "He's dead, John, he's a dead man..."

"What did he do?"

"You know that situation I was in," John nodded. "It was all because of him... Sidonis called me said that he had a lead on the Blood Pack, little did I know it was to lure me away from the base - the building that I was fighting my life in," he said. "The Blue Suns attacked me, when I got away, all but two of my teammates were dead. A Krogan named Tamas and a Turian named Ridale."

"How are you going to find him?"

"There's a specialist on the Citadel, name's Fade. He's an expert at helping people disappear. Sidonis was probably his client," Garru said. "I'll force him to find him, even if I have to beat him within an inch of his life."

"Whoa, I'm almost afraid to ask what you going to do with Sidonis," John said slightly taken aback.

Garrus looked at him confused. "You supported me to kill that thug when we were at Dr. Micheal's office. And now you are not supporting me on this."

"I'm sorry, Garrus."

"You Humans have a saying: 'An eye for an eye'. Well, it's a life for a life," Garrus said. "He owes me ten, and I plan to collect.

"And eye for an eye also leaves the world blind Garrus," John said. "You sure about this?"

"I'm sure, look I don't need you to agree, but I'd like your help and Ragan's if he isn't too busy."

John sighed. "Alright, I'll help."

"Thanks, boss I appreciate this," John went to his cabin to get ready, he looked back at Garrus, he really hoped he didn't regret this. The Normandy landed on the Citadel, as the shuttle flew in to the docks, he was the Wards looking little better than when they were there earlier. The shuttle landed and John and Garrus got out, it was time to find this Fade person though they didn't know hwere toe start looking first.

"I've found references to Fade in C-Sec's crime reports, Shepard. That would be the best place to look," EDI said. The team went to C-Sec to meet with Bailey, as they entered, they saw C-Sec officer struggling with a Human they had in custody, for the looks of his behavior he was high off of red stand.

"You can't fucking do this, you fucking fascists, I got my rights," he yelled. Bailey came up tot he man and tried to punch him until he heard Ragan clear his throat. Ragan went up to the man and punched his so hard, the man flew to the wall and was knocked out.

"And you have the right to shut the hell up, God I wish you use and exercise it," Ragan said while popping his knuckles. "There you go, Bailey."

Bailey looked at him and nodded. He then turned his attention to the officers, "Get him cleaned up and we'll start the interrogation when he wakes up." His men saluted and carried off the unconscious man into the other room. Bailey looked at John and Garrus and walked over to them. "John, it's been a long time. Same with you Commissioner Vakarian."

"I'm looking for Fade," John said.

"Straight to business, huh," Bailey asked. "Yeah I know him, well the alias anyway. He's been a thorn in the Network division's side for the last year. He works with the Blue Suns, if rumors are true."

"Where can we find him," Garrus asked.

Bailey sighed. "If I knew that, he'd be in a cell, best I can do is put you on his trail. There's a warehouse in the marketplace. SOme of Fade's contacts work out of there. Go ask them questions, gently of course. But if that don't work, then use your Spectre status. Oh, Ragan, the council has told us that you are now to be treated as a Spectre because they reinstated you."

"Great, more work on me," Ragan muttered.

"Great, two Spectres now. If they give me answers, we will leave them alone," Garrus said. "Oh, I quit C-Sec so I'm not commissioner any more," he said walking away.

"Is he going to be a problem, I don't want more problems than we already have," Bailey asked.

"You should have seen what Wrex and John fought about two years ago on Virmire. A false cure to the Genophage Saren made," Ragan said. "Don't worry about it. Why haven't you been able to catch him?"

Bailey scoffed. "Whoever he is, he's damned good at avoiding C-Sec. I think someone on the inside is feeding him information or he worked with C-Sec and knows the loopholes." He shook his head. "Either that or he's got access to our databases and comm channels, I don't know which is worse, but you're outside of C-Sec, maybe you can nail his add."

"Maybe, see you later," John said.

They went down to the Shipping Warehouse on Level twenty-six. "This looks like the place, the forgers thugs should be inside," Garrus said. they went in the warehouse, where they met a Volus with two Krogan bodyguards. The Krogan came forward in a threatening manner, John looked at the volus although he never too his eyes off the Krogan, especially one in the brown armor on the left, and he looked a bit twitchy.

"Fade? You're not quite how I imaged you," John said.

"Looks can be deceiving," the Volus said. "So... which one of you wants to disappear?"

"I rather see you make someone reappear," Garru said.

"Ah... that's not the service we provide," the Volus said nervously.

"Make an exception. Just this once," he said getting out his assault rifle.

"Damn it. Quick... shoot them! Shoot them, you lumbering mountains." The Krogan try to get their weapons out, but John and Ragan gunned them down. The Krogan fell in a pool of their orange blood and they they focused on the Volus.

"Too slow," John said.

The volus sighed. "Why do I even bother?"

"Shut it," Garrus said. The turian crouched down and grabbed his suit with his gun pointed at him. "We need to find a client of yours, cooperate or you'll be joining them."

"I would do it, my friend is very pissed off," John said.

"Wait... I'm... not the one you want. I'm not Fade," the Volus said alarmed.

"I knew it was too goo to be true," Ragan said.

"Well maybe you can tell us," Garrus said. "Talk now!"

"Y-yes, of course. He's in the factory district, works out of an old prefab foundry."

"I know the place," Garrus said.

"Uh... he's got a lot of mercs... Blue Suns. Harkin thinsk they're protecting him."

The two Spectres frowned, they both remembered that lowlife when they were finding evidence against Saren. Harkin was the first Human C-Sec officer. According to Captain - well now Councillor - Anderson, who describes Harkin as 'a disgrace to the species,' he was not an illustrious career. During his 20 years in C-Sec, he was known for roughing up suspects in custody, taking brides, and abusing drugs and alcohol. The Embassy used to intervene when he got in trouble, for fear that it would damage Humanity's reputations if he were dismissed. "Harkin? What does that jack-off have to do with anything," John asked. "And what does the Blue Suns have to do with this?"

"He's... uh Fade," the Volus explained. "They use his services... to help their people to infiltrate businesses and various organizations here on the Citadel."

"Bastard. He's using C-Sec to help those scum," Garrus growled

"No, no, no. Well not really," the volus said. "He got fired from C-Sec a while ago. But he knows the systems."

Ragan crossed his arms. "So being douche finally bit him in the ass, how surprising...," he said.

"Interesting. But it changes nothing. We still need to find him before we get to Sidonis," Garrus said.

"Right, that asshole needs a good talking to," John said.

Garrus snorted. "Talk all you want. I'll be too busy giving his kidneys a friendly kicking," he said. "We should get to the transit station."

"So I... uh... I can go," the Volus asked.

"Sure, you can go, but if we don't find Harkin, we'll be back for you," Garrus said while pointing at him with is talon.

"Oh good," the Volus said dead panned.

When they left the warehouse they took a shuttle to the Factory district. The district was huge, a winding maze of storage boxes and machinery, how anyone could miss this especially C-Sec was anyone's guess. The shuttle landed and Garrus with John and Ragan got out and walked to the entrance. They meet Harkin with two Blue Suns trooper. Harkin paled as his eyes went wide as he saw them, especially Ragan. He remember Ragan pulling a gun on Harkin for not giving him the information where Garrus is at.

"Ragan," Harkin asked. He takes a step back fearfully. "Oh shit, not him. If he is here, then his cousin must be alive. Shepard, Y-you're dead!"

"I get that a lot," John said with a smirk. "What, no welcome back, Harkin? I'm hurt, really?"

"Don't just stand there... stop them. Stop them!" While the Blue Suns got their weapons Harkin like the coward he was, flees deeper into the district.

"Run all you want, Harkin! We'll find you," Garrus growled. The two troopers opened fire and Garrus and John took cover. One bullet hit Ragan and that was a mistake. An image was where Ragan was at, the troopers looked confused. John then saw a hand behind them and took the head and quickly threw him into the wall then grabbed the last merc before cutting the merc's back so deep that the blade went to the heart. Seeing how outclassed he was to the other merc tried to run, but he didn't get far was he was gunned down by Garrus.

"Good shot," Ragan said.

They moved deeper into the district fighting more mercs and LOKI mechs. Due to the machinery and storage boxes, the Blue Suns loved to use ambushes to catch them off guard, it was also hard for Garrus to get a clear shot for sniping as the Blue Suns had lots fo cover. John and Ragan had to admit, he was impressed by the Blue Suns location, it was tactically good location but did have its flaws. John's singularity lifted up the mercs and a canister, Garrus shot the canister, causing an explosion before Ragan threw another one into the field, making the mechs and mercs fly away with the crates.

"Harkin's in here somewhere. I can smell him," Garrus growled.

"Keep your head on straight, Garrus," John warned.

"Don't worry; I've come too far to mess up now," Garrus said lowering the gate.

They moved across and took cover behind the crates and used the elevated cover to hit them from the top. LOKI mechs dropped from the ceiling and even more come from the shipping container on the right. John overloaded the mechs while Garrus blased their heads off. On top of all that there are some Blue Suns that just don't seem to get the message that they couldn't be stopped and open fire. Ragan uses lift field followed by a shockwave. John used his singularity field and Garrus pushed them off the ledges with concussive shots. Suddenly the Singularity and lift fields came together and an explosion happen; leaving Blue Suns skeletons that turned to ash. About three of them are in cover when the explosion hit so it didn't work on them.

"We need reinforcements, they're tearing us apart," one of them said before a bullet went through the crate to his skull.

"We're getting closer," Garrus said. This next area more LOKI mechs emerged, they were reinforced by Blue Suns troopers, a commander and YMIR mech. They were alos reinforced with four engineers that then summoned their drones; the trio was looking at a formidable obstacle.

"Shit," Garrus said.

"You can say that again," Ragan said before quickly sliding under the YMIR mech and started attacking the engineers.

"Get down," John said. Ragan then jumps up in the air and biotical boosts to the ceiling when he saw John got his Cain; Ragan then starts swinging until he gets behind John and lets go. While the Spectre charged the cannon, the mercs fired at him, luckily John's tech armor was enough to protect him. And then the heavy mech was charging its missile launcher.

"Uh, Boss? I think you need to hurry now," Garru said.

Ragan then gets in front of him and places a barrier around John. The Cain beeped and fired. An Explosion happened and all the Blue Suns and mechs were turned to ash.


	107. Chapter 68: Eye for an Eye part 2

Chapter 68: Eye for an Eye part 2

Ragan then gets in front of him and places a barrier around John. The Cain beeped and fired. An Explosion happened and all the Blue Suns and mechs were turned to ash. The recoil knocked John back, but the bright sphere of light flew as high speeds for the Blue Suns. the mercs scattered that were left to get away from the balst, but were too slow as it impacted. Ragan made the twenty-five gram bomb have a vaporization path before impact. So that meant the mercs and some of the mechs were destroyed. What followed whas bright light and loud explosion as the blast grew bigger demolishing everything in its path. Even the mighty heavy mech was not safe as the blast broke its shields and stripped off its armor, the trio heard a second explosion probably from all the mechs blowing up as they heard more screams. When the light cleared, nothing was left but a black scorched area, broken mech parts and a few dead mercs. After dealing with the rest of the Blue Suns, they enetered an office. Garrus was close to his goal and he wouldn't let a slime like Harkin get in his way, Sidonis would pay for his men's lives.

"Harkin has down well for himself," John said.

"Being a criminal tends do that," Garrus said. "But I'm in no mood for his bullshit." Garrus said as he opened the shutter. "Now what the hell is he up to?" Garrus scanned the are aintesely.

"You seem to be getting ense, Garrus," Ragan said.

"Harkin may know why Sidonis wanted to disappear," Garrus said. "If so, he may know we're here and I don't want Harkin tipping him off." As the three talked, they saw something in the distance, they then quickly took cover.

"What the hell was that," Ragan asked.

"Did you see that," Garrus said.

"I saw something," John said.

"He's getting ready for us," Garrus said. "I say we don't disappoint them."

"Got it," John said.

"Alright, then," Ragan said with a smirk. "Hope this will come in handy." He grabs a giant rocket launcher. "Time to use the M-900 Cobra."

The trio got out of the office and made thier way to Harkin's office. Harkin has so scared that he pressed a few buttons on the terminal and some LOKI mechs came down.

"Why don't you turn around, Garrus, before you get hurt," Harkin said over the intercom. LOKI mechs on the ground floor started to fire and were reinforced by Blue Suns troopers on the upper level. LOKI mechs fell from the the cranes and activated to start shooting at the team. Since John couldn't reach the troopers, John used dominate on the troopers and they started firing on each other. Garrus looked on as the trooper gunned each other down and then looked at John.

"What the hell...," he asked.

"Samara taught me," he said.

"Impressive."

After the initial wave there were more LOKI mechs and more Blue Suns troopers came out. A LOKI mech attempted to flank them, but Garrus pushed it back with a concussive shot. John used his singularity field to lift the troopers out of cover and froze them. Ragan then shattered them with his M-300 Claymore. Two Blue Suns heavies took their falen allies place, firing rockets at the trio.

"How about another hack, boss?"

"Can't, tires me out," John said weakly.

"I got this," Ragan said. He throws his chain kumia at the ceiling and jumps up. The heavies tried to shoot him but failed. Then Ragan let go. The Heavies looked at each other but right before Ragan landed, he does a Nova. The shockwave from the ground made the heavies get lifted in air. Garrus groaned as he took his sniper rifle. he ducked back into cover when one of the heavies was about to hit explosive tank, he aimed and took out the first one by shooting the tank. The second heavy merc fired at Garrus and the rocket hit the Turian dead on, if it wasn't for his shield upgrade, that hit would have hurt a lot. He survived a rocket to the face, but this one would be a rocket to the body. John fired at the Blue Suns Heavy right before it hit the ground next to him. Once the battle endeds they started climbing the platforms Harkin put up.

"You're never getting in here, Garrus," Harkin said.

"He sure likes to talk," John said.

"Most people are the most talkative when they're desperate," Ragan said.

"Harkin's going to regret this," Garrus said before he heard a loud whirling sound. The Turian looked up and saw two big white masses. "Aw crap. Two heavy mechs... incoming."

"Do you really think you can take me down," Harkin asked. "You're an idiot if you did."

"I got this," John said.

Before the mechs could drop, John froze them both with his stasis field and got out his Cain, he only had one shot left; he had to make it count. He pulled the trigger and the resulting blast pushed the three back. When the light subsided, the mech parts started raining to the ground where they landed with a heavy thud. once the YMIR mechs are down, they moved up to the office and Harkin then raised the six paltforms in front of him where he was hiding.

"I'm tired of these games, Harkin," Garrus growled.

They climbed up to his position by the platforms. His final defenders were two LOKI mechs on the top level and they start walking down to them. John and Garrus overloaded the mechs and got to the door. As John moves into position, Harkin was seen engaged in frenetic observation through the window. John walks in gun drawn, noticing his approach, Harkin turns and runs - only to be intercepted by Garrus, who proceeds to ram him against an adjacent wall in a less than gentle fashion, but that didn't work. Harkin quickly evades him and make a run for it. Once he was out of the office, he felt something grab his leg and pull him to the ground. Harkin quickly turns to his back and sees Ragan coming up from the grates. Like anyone would do, Harkin starts backing up to only to be stopped by a wall. Ragan grabs him by the collar and throws him back in the office. Garrus comes up and grabs him before slamming him to the wall with his arm on his neck.

"So, Fade... couldn't make yourself disappear, huh?"

"Come one, Garrus... we can work this out. What do you need," Harkin asked nervously.

"I'm looking for someone."

"Well, I guess we both have somethign the other one wants," Harkin sneered. Garrus was not amused as he kicked Harkin in the crotch. Harkin groaned as he slid down on the ground, John had to admit it, it was kind of satisfying to see Harkin humiliated like this.

"That had to hurt, maybe now you'll want to talk," Ragan said.

"Maybe, I still haven't heard what you want," Harkin said as he got off the ground.

"You helped a friend of mine disapppear, now i need him to reappear," Garrus said.

"You could be more specific. I don't know what you want."

"His name is Sidonis. Turian, came from the Omega star system."

"I know who he is, and I'm not telling you shit."

John sighed. "Harkin, this doesn't have to be hard."

"Screw you," he said. "I don't give out information, it tends to be bad for business." Garrus head-butted Harkin and stepped on his neck.

"You know what else is bad for business," Ragan asked. "A broke neck!" Garrus increased the pressure on Harkin's neck. John sighed at the stubborn man on the floor, he was just digging himself deeper, Garrus was in no mood for games. Harkin desperately tried to get the Turian's foot off his neck so he could at least breath.

"Alright! Arlight! Get off me," he strained. Garrus relented and got off him. Harkin took a gasp of air and got off the floor rubbing his neck. "Terminus really changed you, huh, Garrus?"

"No, but Sidonis opened my eyes," he said bitterly. "Now arrange the meeting." Harkin gott up and went to the terminal. As he sat the meeting, John saw Garrus playing with his gun; he frowned as what the Turian was thinking. Harkin came back them.

"It's all good. he wants to meet you in front of Orbital Lounge on Level 10. Middle of the day," Harkin said. "So if our business is down, I'll be going...," As he makes his move to leave, Garrus grabs him by the collar with his gun pointed at him.

"I don't think so. You're a criminal now, Harkin."

Harkin paled. "So what, you're going to kill me. Come on Garrus, that's not your style," he said in fear.

Garrus gave an unsettling grin. "Kill you? No. But I don't mind slowing you down a little," he said pointing the gun at Harkin's foot. John's eeyes went wide and quickly grabbed his gun, before it went off.

"That's enough Garrus; he won't be able to hide from C-Sec now."

The turna scoffed and pulled away from the Spectre. "I guess it's your lucky day."

"Yeah, hope we can do this again real soon," Harkin said sarcastically. Garrus head-butted him in the nose. Ragan then comes up and shoots Harkin in the leg.

"That's for wasting my time two years ago with your story," Ragan said. "Tell me that Anderson was a Spectre."

John looked at him and gave a smile. He knew what Ragan was talking about.

"Come on, let's move."

"Sidonis better be there, or I'm coming to finish the job," Garrus threatened. The squad takes a transport to the Lounge, where Garrus would finish this. As the transport landed, the three of them sat in the seats in silence, John knew what was coming.

"We shouldn't have left him there, Harkin's a bloody menace," Garrus said. "We shouldn't have let him go."

"Don't waste your time with him, let C-Sec handle him," John said. "And you need to stop shooting people like that," John pointed at Ragan, who just growled. "I'm more worried about you."

"Don't be, there is no turning back," he said.

"You're going to regret this," John said. Garrus glared at him.

"And how do you know?!"

"Because I lived it," John said. "First at Torfan! Not to mention X-57 two years ago, if Tali and Ragan didn't stop me, those hostages would be dead, you saw what I was like when I saw those Batarians, I was out for blood." Garrus looked away. "You do this, and Sidonis will define you for the rest of your life, just like the Batarians did with me..."

"Who's going to bring Sidonis to justice if I don't? Nobody else knows what he's done. Nobody else cares."

"Somebody does, look," John said pressing his omni-tool. Garrus read the letter; it was from the wife of Alex, an Asari on Omega.

'From: Nalah Butler

Commander John Shepard,

My husband was one of the men serving on Garrus' team. I don't know how much Garrus talked to you about what happened. I don't know the specifics myself, only that my husband died in a trap set by those bastard gangs. I know Garrus blames himself; he took every shot fired at his squad at a failure on his part, and it was clear when he sent me the message about my husband that he thinks it was his fault.

My husband would never have wanted that. He was proud of the work he did on Garrus' squad. He was taking back Omega from the gangs. He died fighting with honor. I miss him. Goddess, I'd give anything to get him back. But whatever happened there wasn't any part of Garrus' fault.

You're his commander now. Please, if you can, help him stop blaming himself. And please don't tell that I sent you this. Thank you.

\- Nalah Butler.'

"I don't know what to say," Garrus said.

"Look let me talk to him," John said.

Garrus looked away. "Talk all you want, but it won't bring my men back."

"No, but neither will killing him," Ragan said. "I know how you feel. Most of my squad killed during Eden Prime because of me and Ash not being alert enough. I blamed myself."

"I don't care what his reasons were, he screwed us, he deserves to die," Garrus said.

"So when someone else betrays someone, they should die without you hearing the other side," Ragan said. "Garrus, a betrayal has two sides. Just like a coin. One side is good, and the other is bad. Right now Garrus, me and John don't know the whole thing so he is on the edge. Until we get the whole thing, do not kill him."

"Alright," Garrus said. "I see you point. Two parts need to be heard. You heard my side. I need to set up."

John and Ragan sighed. "Fine, I hope you don't regret this," John said. John leaves the cab with Ragan and it takes off. The Spectres went down in the Lounge, John never been here before it must had been a new area after Saren's attack. It was ablaze with color and sound, energy as people went about their day, blissful of what was going to happen soon. His comm opened.

"John, can you hear me," Garrus said.

"Loud and clear. Ragan is in position also, in case you miss."

Garrus looked across the room and saw a Turian sitting down in a red, blue and yellow casual wear. Garrus snorted, the man stood out like a sore thumb, like he wanted to get shot. It didn't matter it would all be over soon. "There he is, wave him over and keep him talking." Down on the ground, Sidnois is waiting and John motions him over. The Turian walked over to John.

"Let's get this over with," Sidonis said. As John looked at him, he had to wonder this was the man responisible for ten deaths, a man that Garrus sworn bloody vengeance onto. Sidonis looked uremarkable; his eyes were dull and hollow like death. he looked skinny, very skinny like he hadn't eaten in weeks, he also smelled. He looked like he belonged in the slums, not walking around in an area like this.

"You're in my shot. Move to the side," Garru said.

John sighed. "Listen Sidonis, I'm here to help."

"Don't even say that name out loud," he said nervously.

"I'm a friend of Garrus, he wants you dead and I'm hoping that's not necessary."

Sidonis' eyes went wide. "Garrus? Is this a joke?"

"Damn it John, if he moves I'm taking the shot!"

"You're not joking, are you," he asked in fear. "Screw this I'm not sticking around to find out. Tell Garrus I had my own problems." He beings to walk away. John pulls his arm and warns him to stay still. "Get off me!"

"I'm the only thing standing between you and a hole in your head," John said. "If y7ou want to live, you stay in front of me." Sidonis looked at him nervously. "Garrus won't shot me not even to get to you."

Sidonis lowered his head. "Fuck," he saidn in defeat. They walked over to the rails, John stayed in Garrus' shot the whole way. "Look I didn't want to do it but I didn't have a choice."

"Everyone has a choice," Garrus growled.

"The Blue Suns got me, said they'd kill me and my family if I didn't help. What was I supposed to do?"

"Let me take the shot, he's a damned coward."

John ignored Garrus. "That's it," he asked. "You were trying to save yourself and your family?"

"I know what I did. I know they died, because of me, and I have to live with that," Sidonis said sadly. "I wake up every night... sick... and sweating. Each of their faces staring at me... accusing me."

"I... know how you feel," John said solemnly

The Turian sighed. "I'm already a dead man, I don't sleep, and food has no taste. Some days I just want it to be over."

"Just give me the chance," Garrus said.

"There's nothing left to kill, Garrus, he's already dead inside," John said. "Your revenge would be hallowe empty."

"Tell Garrus if it means anything, I'm sorry for what happened. I shouldn't have done it, but I did," Sidonis said sadly. Tears came from his eyes and he was wiping them off.

Garrus took his finger off the trigger when he heard that. He didn't want to hear that, he didn't want to hear he regretted what he did, he wanted to kill him. But he couldn't, John was right killing him would mean nothing. His revenge meant nothing in the end. "Damn you, Sidonis..." He clenched his teath and gave a frustrated roar. "Tell him to go, just go," Garrus said in defeat.

"You're lucky man, Garrus just let you live, don't waste it," John said walking away.

"I won't I will make it count, I promise, Garrus," he whispered. Sidonis walked away and John met with Ragan and Garrus, they sat on the transport silently, staring at nothing.

"Garrus," John started. The turian raised his hand.

"I know you want to talk about this, but... I'm not ready," Garrus said.

"I know it didn't go the way you want, but it's for the best," Ragan said.

"Hm, maybe," Garrus said. He then looked at John as he was about to enter the trasnport. "You were never going to let me shoot were you?"

The Spectre stopped and looked at him. "No, because the better man is never a murderer," john said. "Never forget that." He went into the transport.

"Got it, boss," Garrus went inside.

"Revenge digs two graves Garrus. One for your victim and the other for you or someone that you love," Ragan said while getting in. "I've been there before. Just look at what Cerberus did to me."

"I got that," Garrus said. The three went back to the Normandy.


	108. Chapter 69: Love Lost

Chapter 69: Love Lost

It was morning on the crew deck, Kasumi woke up to get some breakfast. The thief gave a huge yawn and went to Rupert to get a meal. The older man smiled when he saw her approached, something that was not lost on the other crew members. Ever since she came on board, they had a unique relationship, Rupert wasn't what you call the best cook, most of the time the cew would rather take a bland freeze dry food than Rupert's infamous chef surprise which tasted like three-week old spam that's been left out in the heat with the consistency rubber cement. However Kasumi was different, as soon as she was hungry she tried the surprise and loved it much to the crew's surprise, even Grunt wouldn't eat it and Krogan are known for their appetites which gave the young thief the reputation of the most badass person on the ship... next to her brother and John of course.

"Hey Rupert, got anything to eat," Kasumi asked

Rupert smirked. "Sure thing. Ta da," he revealed the best looking food he had cooked. A big bowl of eggs and sausage with some potatoes and other breakfast foods. "Ragan got the good food here yesterday when we were at the Citadel. Turns out he knows good food." The crew was in complete awe, all of them were used to the his chef surprise - which made them gagged or some of the run to the elevator or the bathroom anything to get away from it. All the crew can say was that Rupert did something. Most of the crew was in denial of it. Kasumi just smelled it, and sighed happily. "Sauteed Breakfast Dish, Ragan told me that it was a delicacy when he was station at Eden Prime before the Geth attacked."

"Oh damn, that smells good, you make the best stuff." She took the bowl and began eating the food, much to the disbelief and/or horror of the other members. When she was done she sat back in her chair. She smiled at Rupert. "Man, you keep cooking like that; you're going to spoil me. I thank Ragan for the good food."

"Anything to please a lady," Ruper said starting the dishes. He then fiddled with his omni-tool to find some music, and all he got was static. "Goddamned tool, it's on the fritz again, two hundred years and we still get pieces of junk," he said. Kasumi came up to him.

"Let me try," she said. Ruper took of his omni-tool and handed it to her. "Let's see...," Kasumi tinkered with the omni-tool. She wasn't as good with gadgets as Lia was, but it it was something simple then it was all good. She messed around with it until she heard a sound.

"This is E! news with breaking news: Tomorrow afternoon, Billionaire playboy and CEO of Rosenkov Materials Donovan Hock is once again hosting an annual jamboree at his Bekenstein estate. It was thought the party would not happen due to the Alliance investigating alleged charges of arms dealing, bribery of public officials and murdered all of which his lawyer strongly denies. The who's who will nevertheless be joining the festivities from celebrities like Sarah Pit, socialites Ryan Hilton, more playboys like Bruce Wayne and politicians like Anita Goyal. Artists and other are welcomed as well. Stay with us on E! news to learn more."

"Hey, Kasumi... Kasumi," Rooper shook her gently and Kasumi snapped back to reality

"Huh," she was confused. Course being in another world then back to reality tends to do that to anyone.

"You spaced out on me when you heard that announcement, you okay?"

"Y-yea... I... I... got to go," Kasumi said shakily. "Thank you for the food." Kasumi gave Rupert back his omni-tool and went to her room. Once in her room, she took off her hood to wipe the tears falling from her eyes. She walked over to a chest she brought on the Normandy. "Silence is Golden..." the chest unlocked and revealed a single case that had a gold ring with a diamond inside; on the outside of the rig was an engraving: Ai shite isamu or 'I love you' in Japanese

"Keiji..."

**Five Years Ago - Terra Nova**

_It was nighttime on the colony, Keiji and Kasumi was getting read for their final job. Kasumi had been bugging Keiji about being bored and missing the energy from all the heists they've done all these years. Keiji was reluctant at first, he wanted to retire from that life, but even he had to admit he too was getting bored, so eventually he came on board. The job was to be simple, go in and get some data for their client, the reward would be three hundred million credits, when they heard about that amount their jaws dropped, and with that kind of money retiring from the game was all bur decided._

_"I'm ready on my end, Keiji...," Kasumi said putting on her hood. She saw as Keiji put on his shirt, even in the dark side, she could see his well-defined abs. She blushed._

_"Like what you see," Keiji asked with a smirk._

_"Yeah, we'll have to do something once we get back..."_

_"Looking forward to it." Kasumi turned to get outside but Keiji grabbed her amr. "Um, Kasumi...?" She looked at him, and it was his turn to blush. "Well... might as well get this over with..."_

_"Keiji?"_

_"Look Kasumi, we've been together for quite a while now and I've never felt so strongly about anyone else but you...," he said still flushed. "Even though this will be our last job, I hope this won't be the last of us...," He went to the drawer and pulled out a little gray box, Kasumi's eyes went wide and she gasped as he opened the box. He kneeled down. "Kasumi Goto, will you marry me?"_

_Kasumi smiled and knelt to kiss him. "Yes, yes I will!" One last job with a three hundred million credits payout and now a fiancé. This was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, but it was anything but..._

_They travelled to Shanxi, the only Human colony that was surrendered to aliens during the First Contact War, it was the only colony to ever be occupied by an alien race for Humanity gave it up willingly after General Williams surrendered it but it was also hold little value in the Alliance's eyes. Now since the Alliance and Council had terms of agreements of good willing parts, Shanxi rivals with Eden Prime, Luna - Earth's moon - along with Mindior and Elysuim, and home of some of the richest humans in the Alliance. Their target was the CEO of Rosenkov Materials, Donovan Hock, inside his estate was information so vital and their client was willing to shell out so much money to get it out of Hock's hands. The client gave them everything they needed to get through the security systems and into Hock's vault. The mansion was hug and luxurious, but when you were born into money like Kasumi was, you've been them all, although she did wish she can take other valuables to maximize their profit. The security they faced wasn't so tough, actually they were amateurs._

_Although, they carried weapons with them, they almost never use them until actually needed them, but then as they got in deeper in the compound; those weapons were looking good more and more. The people they were facing now weren't regular secruity personnel, they were mercs and more specifically they were Eclipse. Just what was this data, that Hock was willing to hire cold-blooded killers? Either way it was going to be a challenge to get to the vault, of the three major merc groups, Eclipse were the most advanced due to an Asari Jonnas Sodiarus founded them and Asari race is the most advanced race ever._

_"Two LOKIs, Kasumi take the one of the right, I go the left," Keiji said. Kasumi nodded and they wetn into action disabling the mechs. Once they fell, they entered the security room and implanted a virus into the system to trick the vault's systems into believing they were Hock._

_"Keiji, two engineers coming up," Kasumi said while looking at the screen. "They're checking the mechs."_

_"Knock them out, I need to finish unlocking the vault," Keiji said. Kasumi nodded and cloaked while approaching the mercs._

_"Shit stupid piece of junk, why do we bother with these low-grade mechs," one of the mercs said._

_"Because YMIRs are too clunky and loud plus they would destroy this place with one rocket, now shut up and help me get these things up." Kasumi was no behind them and with a sharp punch and a kick, both of them were knocked out. Keiji finally finished with the vault went to help hide the bodies and they went in. Hock's vault was spectacular, it house such fine art from almost every Citadel and then some. However her favorites had to be the old art from Earth_

_"Oh my God, the Mona Lisa, and the Last Supper," Kasumi said in glee. "And what's this? 'The Sunday Afternoon on the Ilsand of La Grand Jatte', oh la la." She looked at Keiji. "You think we have time to grab these too, love?"_

_Keiji chuckled. "Maybe next time, Kasumi." Keiji went to the terminal and hacked inot the data base. Talk about sensitive information, there was more to Hock than the public know, when he wasn't selling his top of the line weapons to the Alliance's N7 and Z7 program, he was making backroom deals with merc groups, terrorists, and from the looks of the data Hock had even made deals with Omega's infamous warlord Aria T'Loak. Keiji was almost afraid of what this information was going to be. He hated when he was right. "What the hell is this...?"_

_Kasumi walked up to him. "Keiji?" Just as he was about to answer her, the door to their right blew open and Eclipse mercs flooded the room and surrounded them. Kasumi and Keiji had their weapons out, but trying to fight them all would be suicidal. A voice spoke up._

_"Welcome to my humble home, you two," a Hologram of an older man appeared. Donovan Hock. "Why don't you stay awhile or better yet, for life?"_

_After they met with Hock, they found out the silent alarm built within the data that would alert every merc and security officer in the perimeter. however they were able to escape, but it didn't last eventually their planned exit was blocked off when the man himself decided to settle things himself. In came a gunship, he really wanted to make sure they didn't leave with that data. With Hock in front and his guards bringing up the rear, there would be no escape for the both of them, but maybe for one of them. Keiji used himself as bait to draw them away so Kasumi could get away and that was the last time she ever saw Keiji..._

**NOW**

Kasui kissed the gold ring and put it back in the chest. "EDI, where is my brother and John?"

"John is making his rounds on the ship. He is currently talking to Kaiden Alenko in his room. Ragan is at the doorway to your room."

"Thank you, EDI," Kasumi said. She looked back at the chest. "I'll get revenge for you Keiji, I promise I will..."

Ragan shook his head and gave a sigh. "Hard to see you like this, sis. What was Keiji to you?"

"He was my fiancé," Kasumi said. Ragan's eyes went wide.

"I'm sorry for your lost. I just hope Jane and John don't go through what we went through."

"I hope they don't," she sighed and then looked at the ring. "I need to speak with John."


	109. Chapter 70: Stolen Memories part 1

Chapter 70: Stolen Memories part 1

Kasumi was getting ready for her mission to Hock's mansion, as she checked her equipment and her plans, Lia spoke up. "Are you sure you have to do this," Lia asked concerned. "Keiji-kun wouldn't want to throw your life away for his sake." Kasumi hugged her little sister, that was Lia always worrying about other people.

"I have to, I can't let the bastard who killed him defile his memory," she said. "Plus Ragan said that the info that Hock had could help the Alliance with put an end to his schemes." She then grew silent, it was time for Lia to know, she hesitated at first she didn't know how she would react about being a thief and using her inventions to steal, but it was better to come clean, even if it was to clear her own conscience. She took a deep breath. "If I don't come..."

"Don't say that, I don't even want to think about losing you," Lia said.

"But if I don't, you need to at least know that Ragan will have furu shinken over you," Kasumi said. "And you need to know the truth..."

"That you're a thief and you've been using my tech for you work," Lia said. Kasumi looked away.

"How did you know," Kasumi asked. The door opens and Ragan walks in.

"I'm not as naive as you and Keiji-kun believed me to be," the Quarians said. Kasumi looked at Lia.

"And you're not mad? I mean..."

"I was at first, but you and Keiji were always good to me and the other Quarians in the commune, if you were truly bad people you could have taken my tech and left, you could have just forgotten we existed. and been on your way, but you didn't... you treated us like family," Lia explained. "And to me you two will always be my big brother and sister." She hugged the thief tightly

Kasumi felt tears fall to her cheeks. "And you'll always be my little sister."

Ragan then cleared his throat, Lia and Kasumi broke from the hug and quickly looked at him. "John's waiting. Jane is coming with us. I need to get something from this room before we leave." Ragan walked to the bookshelf and pressed a button under one of the shelves. The bookshelf moved in to the wall then vanished by going down. Inside the hole was a black robe with a dragon insignia on it. He careful grabs it and folds it into a small square. "Ryu Hayabusa, you will be remembered. Sensei."

Kasumi and Ragan went to see John. It was time to put someone to rest and get something valuable.

Kasumi, Ragan, Jane and John flew to Hock's estate in the shuttle they had rented. John groaned as he fidgeting with the collar of the suit Kasumi picked out for him. When Kasumi said it was time for the mission, she never told him dressing up was part of it. He hated suits, always have, he didn't even like wearing his dress blues. "Any reason I'm in the penguin suit," John asked annoyed.

"I feel like a greased monkey," Ragan muttered. Jane slapped his head. "What the hell?"

"The party at the estate is formal, and you do have to look the part," Kasumi said. She then smirked. "Besides, you should be happy, cuz, Tali couldn't keep her eyes off you, Mr. Solomon Gunn."

John blushed. he remembered the look on his girlfriend's face, it was possible the most lustful he had seen the Quarian. John may not have like the suit, but Tali definitely did, so maybe the suit wasn't as bas as he believed. John cleared his throat. "Fine, you made your point, what's the plan," he asked.

"You are Solomon Gunn," Ragan said. "You run a small but yet very talented band of mercs called H-Bombers out in the Terminus Systems. Precisely the type of person Hock respects. Jane is Susana Bullock, an actress at day but a merc at night time. She is with the Blue Suns. Kasumi is Eve Dona, a master criminal that was dishonorably discharged from the Alliance Marines, her first mission was stealing an old art statue that was created in 2074, 'Heracles versus the Hydra'. I will be Marcus Marshall, a criminal that is well known and is the best of the best in the business, my first mission was assassination of Italian president, Dante Morra."

"I gave him that part and he's got it all done. Gave us a reputation. Papers, witnesses, article in Badass Weekly and even military records that were sent out," Kasumi said.

"I'm not sure you've notice, but I do have that kind of reputation already," John said.

"Yes, and a reputation for 'crazy' for two years," Ragan said dryly. John rolled his eyes.

"So what, I just talk to him," John asked.

"No. Not yet, you're a smooth talker, but Hock can pick up deception in a snap," Kasumi said.

"So who is Hock," John asked.

"Donovan Hock, CEO of Rosenkov Materials, but that's just a front of his real job, weapon dealing and smuggling. He killed my partner and stole his greybox," Kasumi said with a frown. "He's smart, pragmatic and he has no problem cracking a man's head open to get at the neural implants inside."

"Nasty customer...," Jane said. "Now probably a good tiem for details."

Ragan nodded and then pulled up pictures of Hock's estate. It was large while mansion overlooking the sea, Hock had a thing for the dramatic as looked like a scene right ouf John's novels. And probably an ego to match. "Hock is throwing a part of his closest friends, politicians, celebrities, and a couple of dozens of worse liars, cheaters, mass murderers, and other playboys like Bruce Wayne you'll ever meet, all bringing gifts to the man himself. The picture changed.

"I'm sure we'll get along, just fine," John said sarcastically.

"I hope that was sarcasm, I don't need a gunfight just yet," Kasumi said. "Our tribute will be a lovely gold statue of your nemesis, Saren, rendering in lovely detail and filled to the brim with our weapons and armor."

"The Trojan war tacit, effective but has some flaws," Ragan said. John frowned, he didn't like the fact he was going into a dangerous situation without a weapon. He looked at Kasumi.

"Please tell me I can keep one of my weapons."

"Your pistol or SMG, as long as it's concealed and if you choose the SMG, it needs to look like a pistol. They won't hassle you over a side arm unless you threaten someone," she said.

"Once inside, we'll make our way to Hock's vault door, somewhere in the back of the ballroom, then we case the security and start peeling away the layers. The statute should be there, waiting for you to crack it open and arm up," Ragan smirked. "Then we walk in and take the gray box. After that, find Donovan Hock and kill him."

John raised a brow. "You worked hard on this?"

"I was the planner, making the plans get together, Kasumi had the ideas," Ragan said.

"Well, Keiji must have been more than just a partner."

Kasumi lowered her head and looked out of the window. "Hock was to be our last job," she said sadly. "After the heist, we were to be married, start a new life together, Hock had other plans."

"I'm sorry," John said.

"So am I," Kasumi said. "You have something special with Tali; never take it for granted, cuz. I'm sure you'll find someone Jane."

"I will, trust me," Jane said.

"I won't take it for granted, I learned that the hard way at sixteen," John said.

"Same with me, when I was twenty," Ragan said. "Just wish I could have saved them."

Kasumi nodded. "Now enough sad stuff, let's get this party started." The car landed in front of Hock's estate and the team got out. They saw a lot of people going in, some people going home. Around the perimeter of the mansion, where Eclipse mercs playing security for the night. For the looks on some of the people's faces that were leaving they weren't too comfortable with mercs being in charge of their well-being. Kasumi took a deep breath. "Let's do this." As the four of them went up the stairs, they were stopped by an Eclipse guard.

"Hold on a moment, sir. There seems to be an issue with the statue." More guards came up and started to scan the gold statue, John and Kasumi grew nervous, if they discovered the weapons inside it was all over. A man came out and approached the group; he was well-dressed, well-groomed man in white suit. Kasumi tensed as she saw him, it was Hock, Keiji's killer. Ragan gave her a look and she calmed down. Hock looked at the mercs.

"Is there a problem," he asked in a gruff accent.

"No Mr. Hock, just doing a scan."

Hock gaze went to John and the team. "I don't believe we met. Donovan Hock."

"I've heard a lot about you. Gunn, Solomon Gunn," John said holding out his hand. He was doing what James Bond did when he greeted himself, last name then when to the full name.

"Susana Bullock," Jane said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Marcus Marshall," Ragan said. "Nice to see that people care about what people want."

Hock ignores John's hand. "And I heard a lot about you three," he said. "You've been busy lately, or so the extranet says."

"Sir, the scanners aren't picking anything up," one of the mercs said.

"Yeah, we might need to do something else," said a female merc.

Hock turns towards the statue and places his hands behind his back, now Kasumi was really getting nervous. "Hmm, I don't think our friends would come all the way from Illum just to cause trouble, do you?" The merc shrugged. "You may come through. All of you were invited after all," he said before focusing on Kasumi. "But I will ask your companion to stay outside. you understand, I hope."

"Sorry but since my last mission, I need her due to my cybernetic legs," Ragan quickly defended her. "You see, she is also a tech expert."

"No problem, she can come in, I'm sorry for that," Hock said. "Enjoy the party." Hock went back in side. John and Kasumi went to talk on the side while Ragan went to a vent and entered. Jane went inside of the mansion.

"Okay, so far, good," Kasumi said. "Ragan will drill a hole into the vault after the security system is cut off from both the entrance to the vault and the ducts."

"Good, and what is Jane going to be doing," John asked.

"She will be working dealing with the security. Ragan will be dealing with any of exit plan."

John then looked over his shoulder and saw two Eclipse mercs. "Okay, but we need to get this done quickly."

"Got it," Kasumi said. "You will do the talking, I will have to be out of sight. Just pour on the charm."

John raised a brow. "You do know my charm, imparts putting a gun to someone's face, right," he asked.

Kasumi's eyes narrowed for a little while. "Okay, so maybe not all the charm. I'll stay out of sight and stick with you the best I can. Ragan will meet us at the vault's entrance."

"Got it."

"We'll keep in radio contact in case something goes wrong, or if we found something," she said before activated her tactical cloak. John went inside the mansion. The inside was just as lavish as it was outside, the wall were full of fine art and pictures of Hock's achievements and events. John was right, he was an egomaniac. One of the floors were loads of people talking, some about politics, some about some vacation they went on, and some people just there to either suck up to Hock or show off the latest eye candy they happened to have this week. Kasumi spoke up. "We need to find the door and security. Ragan said it is in the back. We'll figure out the next part of the plan then."

John walked through the mansion, moving his way through the crowds of people looking for Hock's vault, all the while overhearing some of the more undesirable guest's chatter. These muses have been liars, cheats, and murders Ragan was talking about. They made him sick to his stomach; they were people who had gotten rich and power off the misery of people less fortunate than them, he really wanted to do something, but focused on the mission. Eventually he made it to the vault, Hock's very hi-tech vault. Ragan was waiting with two mercs knocked out on the floor.

"Very nice, there' more here than I expected," Kasumi said reappearing.

"Yeah, this mercs were here to make sure that nothing gets in if someone broke the security," Ragan said. "I dealt with them silently."

"Good, hope they didn't have anything on them that would warn the other guards," John said. Ragan nodded.

"Not anymore. I overloaded the heartbeat monitors with a false reading. So no guards will come in."

Kasumi came up to the vault and analyzed the systems. "Password protected, voice locked, kinetic barrier, DNA scanner and what's this. Retro scan... looks like an EX-700 series. Everything a vault needs to be impenetrable."

"Can you break it," John asked.

"Please, cuz, remember who you're talking to," she said. "We'll need a voice sample for the voice lock."

John groaned. "I'll have to speak with that jackass," he sounded annoyed.

"Not now," she said. "and we have to find the password too."

"First the password then the voice sample," Ragan said. "Better and easy that way instead of trying to guess at the voice algorithm. The Retro scan, I can do that with the following, a small fly camera that can take photos and download the the whole eye to my omni-tool. After that, child's play to get it to three dimensional perspective and be like the real thing."

"What about the DNA? He's bound to be careful," John said.

"Child's play, I don't care how through he is, his DNA is still there," Kasumi said. "And the barrier, cut the power off, never fails, it must be on a separate line, in case of the whole mansion loses power."

"Has to be. Think about it, if a master thief - like you - came and cut the power, the last thing that needs to be off that holds valuables is the barrier," John said.

"You're good," Ragan said. "Might need to teach me how to do some of that."

"Keiji taught me all of his tricks," Kasumi said. "he could get through this in his sleep..."

"He sounded like a good man, it's a shame I didn't get to meet him," John said.

"I know he would have liked you, both of you," she said sadly. "Let's do it."

"Got it," Ragan said before throwing a small fly camera in the air. "I'll get the retro scan part and be done, hardest and it will require time."

"Got it, cuz...," John said.


	110. Chapter 70: Stolen Memories part 2

Chapter 70: Stolen Memory part 2

"So what should we do, first," John asked.

"We cut the power to the vault first," Kasumi said. "There should be a cord near here." John nodded and exited the room; he found a silver cord next to the door.

"Found it."

"I'll set all our omni-tools to scan electromagnetic fields," Kasumi said while pressing a few buttons on her omni-tool. Ragan and John's beeped. "There, just follow the cord and try not to be obvious."

John rolled his eyes. "Thanks you for the vote of confidence," he said.

"Sure, its not like you need it," Ragan said. Ragan then bent down and started controlling the fly camera. "I'll try to get it close to Hock without it being seen."

John headed up the stairs ahead, he was careful to play it smooth as to not attract to himself. Luckily the patrons were too busy bragging about their wealth to pay attention to him. He started to understand why people like Kasumi robbed the rich, it was because they were completely dense. He went around the corner and saw a fireplace, though it wasn't real just a hologram. John saw the cable led to a statue and pulled the statue away from the wall, reavealing a small power grid.

"One second," Ragan said over the comm link. "I got the fly camera an EMP so it can mess the system. Just give me a few seconds to calabraite the systems. Okay, coming in hot." The fly camera to the power grid and started messing with it.

"Please tell me the rest is going to be as easy as that," John asked.

Ragan laughed and was about to say something but Kasumi beat him to the punch. "Not even close, cuz," she said. "The next thing we should do is get a DNA sample, which should be in his private quarters."

John annoyingly sighed. "How the hell I am going to get in there," he asked. "It's not like I can just ask him."

"Jane is in there right now, course she had to go through the vents," Ragan said. The fly camera then flew off and people were trying to destroy it by whooshing it away.

Kasumi thought for a while. "Got it, meet me outside on the balcony," she said. John slipped outside of the mansion to the balcony overlooking the Bekenstein waters. John watched to see if anyone was watching and walked over to the rail. He then looked to see if anyone was watching. Luckily no one didn't see or seem to care about it, so he lept over the rail.

"Pull the tab," Ragan said. "It's a gravity descender, meaning you will fall slower than biotics and won't get hurt." John quickly finds the tab and pulls it off. "All our suits for this heist have it due to Kasumi and Jane don't have biotics."

John then ascended slowly to the ground and landed on the ledge that was about thirty feet down from the balcony. Kasumi reappeared in front of him. They quickly went to the two pillars and took cover behind three Eclipse guards outside Hock's room.

"Okay, put your silencers on," John ordered. Kasumi nodded and placed her silencers on her M-358 Talon and M-27 Hornet. John quickly puts his silencers on his weapons but the shotgun. "On three, flashbang." Kasumi got her grenade out and got in position for like a breaching part. "One, two, three." Kasumi rolled a small grenade in between thre three guards. One of the guards looked down and crouched down to pick it off the ground.

"Hmm, what's this," the merc asked. The flashbang activated and a bright flash blinded the guards. They all yelled in confusion and started shooting wildly. John glowed blue and pushed the guards off the ledge, and they fell to their deaths on the rocks below. Kasumi chuckled and went to a window. She then started lockpicking and got the window open and they climbed through to the hallway leading to Hock's bed room. Hock's bedroom was nothing special, a little ritzier than average.

"Look for anything we can get useable DNA from," Kasumi said. "Just make it quick and quiet." John nodded and searched the room. First he searched the pillows on the bed.

"No hair or skin flakes," he said.

"Housecleaning must be thorough, let's search for more." John then searched one of the couches.

"Aha," John said. Kasumi looked at him.

"What a sample," she asked.

"Yeah, but also a... credit chit," he was confused about that. Hock was rich but to lose a credit chit in a couch is something that is not like a rich person.

"Really," Kasumi asked annoyed.

"Hey, we got a sample here. Skin and blood." He bent down and took the DNA in a bag. "Catch," he said while throwing the bag to her. She caught it. "I'm keeping this chit."

"Please focus," she said.

"Okay, okay," he said. He searched Hock's desk. "Kasumi, I got a datapad here."

Kasumi came to John and scanned the datapad. "'Okuda. Decryption Project update: Little progress to report. We have no completed dictionary attacks using words and phrases from four thousand and eight hundred galactic languages. Research into the Okuda family has not produced any matches. It is unlikely that a random brute-force approach will produce a result without our lifetimes. Given the nature of the graybox technology, it's possilbe that the decryption key may not be a password at all. It could be a memory, an emotion, even a smell - the permutations could be infinite. I suggest that we being investigating alternate methods for breaking the box,'" she read. "He was trying to crack Keiji's graybox."

"I'm guessing he had no luck," John said. Kasumi nodded. "Any luck on the DNA scan on your end."

"I found DNA on the wine glass and his antique collection," she said. "Japanese swords from an old ninja named Ryu Hayabusa."

"That son of bitch," Ragan said. "Those swords belong to me. Ryu gave me everything. How did he get those swords?" John smirked and went over to the collection. "Leave them... for now."

"Okay," John said in a confused manner.

"We can go," Kasumi said. John nodded. the duo came out of Hock's room and saw two guards near the entrance. it looks like they weren't subtle enough as they were now walking towards Hock's room after investigating the window they used to enter. They had to think fast.

"Use your flash grenades, I'll take them down," John said. Kasumi nodded and threw one grenade at the guards. They looked at the grenade and tried to get out of the way but failed when a big flash of light came out.

"Dammit," one of the mercs said. He went crazy at shooting everything and killed the other guard. "Goddamn..."

John lifted the last merc up and pushed him out the window and quickly slammed him against the building. Cracking the skull and killing the merc instantly.

"All we need now is Hock's voice, the eye scan and the password," Kasumi said.

"What do you suggest," he asked.

"The password shouldn't be a problem; Jane can get in their server and get it there," Kasumi said while taking the key card from the dead merc. "As for you, here." She gave John a black device.

"What's this?"

"A recording device, just put it in your ear and anything you here will be recorded but wait until Ragan gets the eye scan," she said. "Good luck with Hock, I heard he is quite the talker.

"Oh joy," John said deadpanned.

"When you get his voice, meet me down in the vault, my trip shouldn't take too long."

"Be careful, cuz," John said. Kasumi smiled and nodded before she disappeared.

John went to Hock. He was talking to an older man who had two Asari on his arms. They were talking about galactic politics, but from the look on Hock's face he was bored out of his mind. The fly camera came in and started scanning his eye. The Asari looked at Hock when he was trying to get the fly camera to leave. They just giggled and the man was confused. After a while, the fly camera left and Hock relaxed. He gazed at John and moved away from the old man and walked over to the Spectre. It was time to talk to him, even though he rather shoot Hock in the head and be dowe with it. "Mr. Gunn, good to see," Hock said. "That scene at the door haven't soured your evening, I hope."

"I understand the security but who would dare try to break into the home of Donovan Hock," he asked.

Hock chuckled lightly. "Gunn, in our line of work, we attract a certain element. Few understand the hard work we take to keep the barbarians at bay."

John gave a fake smile, trying to keep his emotions in check. "I'm sure the barbarians think di9fferently."

"Yes they do, being ruthless or just annoying can make you one," Hock pointed at him and got to his ear. "I know who you are," he whispered. "Commander Shepard." John's eyes went wide and Hock got away from his ear. "People these days want comfort, entertainment and love. They don't see that the galaxy is fragile." One by one his guests were listening to his rambling. Until the room got quiet and only Hock's voice could be heard. "They only have to worry about simple luxuries. Why? Because people like me... like you are doing the terrible things that keep the galaxy spinning. Chaos has to be made to have order come in and fix the problem."

"So this party is for the necessary evil of the galaxy, not sure the council sees it that way," John said.

"We are the cleaners, Mr. 'Gunn', the support structure of the galaxy's gleeful delusions of peace," Hock said. "May there always be a market for the things we do. Or at least have a new order system." The guests gave the man a standing ovation, John felt sick to his stomach again.

"Thank you Mr. Hock, you gave me alot to think about," John said with a fake smile.

"Enjoy the party, Mr. 'Gunn.'"

"Oh I will," John said. He went to the vault to meet with Ragan, Jane and Kasumi, who was already working on opening the rest of the vault. Kasumi looked back at John and went back to work.

"Enjoyed his little speech," Kasumi asked.

John scoffed as he leaned back on the wall with his arms crossed. "Like a nail through the head, how do people get away with shit like that," he asked.

"One word and it starts with 'm' and ends with 'y'. It's called money. Money can make people do a lot of horrible things; it can make those delusional into believing their crimes are justified," Ragan said. "Known a few people like that, next day they are in a ditch with five bullet holes in each body."

"Keiji was well aware of that, that's why he wanted to quit," Kasumi said.

"Wise man."

"He was," Kasumi said.

"We got some bad news, he knows who I am," John said. Ragan looked at him. "What no 'What were you thinking'?'"

"No because now he thinks the Alliance is spying on him," Ragan said with a smirk. "With that, we can get in and get the graybox before he can find out what happened."

Kasumi sighed. "Get suited up, it's time."

"About damn time," John said unlcoking the statue. Kasumi finished disabling the security while John straps on his armor and weapon. Ragan brings out a robe and wears them. Jane then goes to the elevator and places an EMP on the door. As they went in the elevator, Kasumi waved her omni-tool across the camera to cover their tracks and the door closed. Ragan climbed up and opened the hatch before gracefully leaving.

The elvator door opened revealing a large room full of priceless artifacts that were too hot for Hock to show. "Hock's vault doesn't disappoint, his Berkenstein collection is just as impressive as his Shanxi collection," Kasumi walked out and her eyes fell upon an old statue with missing arms. "Michelangelo's David! You think maybe we can sneak it out?"

"Kasumi...," Jane warned.

"Alright, alright," she said. "My god..."

"What," John asked. He saw her walk over to a rather large statue head. John walked up to the rails. "Lady Liberty's head."

"Yeah, you're not kidding. How and where the Hell did he get this? Damn you, Hock!"

"When he's dead, I'm going to have to notify the Alliance about this. Earth would like its artwork back," John said.

"What makes you think...," Kasumi asked.

"He's an idiot with ego problem, trust me he will die," John said. Jane walked down the steps and notices some stone tablets in a glass case.

"John, Kasumi, down here," Jane said.

John and Kasumi went up to her. "Looks like Quarians script. Must be old. When did the Quarians last write on stone?"

"About sixty thousand years ago," Ragan's voice was heard over the comm link. "Anyway, Joker is waiting for us. Got the EMP charges layed out and ready if Hock tries to kill us."

"Quarians, huh," John asked. "Do you 5hink we can take them with us?" Kasumi looked at him. Jane chuckled.

"Oh I don't get to steal, but you do," Kasumi asked annoyed.

John shrugged. "It's not stealing if you're returning it to whom it belongs to."

"Tali's lucky to have a boyfriend willing to steal for her, must run in the family," she joked. John rolled his eyes and went to a table with no case. Kasumi's eyes lit up. "Is that... It is. Kassa Locus. No, THE Kassa Locus. The gun that killed two presidents, a vice president, a senate, four governers, and an ambassador."

John picked up the gun. "Huh, and it comes with several perfect copies too. I don't think Hock will mind us 'borrowing' these," he said. Kasumi approached the device next to the gun and activated her omni-tool. The download commencered until there was a beep from her omni-tool.

"And done," Kasumi said. "That was easier than I thought."

"Don't say that just yet...," John said.

"Why's that," she asked. A giant hologram of Hock's head appeared before them. "Oh."

"Didn't I tell you? Idiot with an ego problem," John said with a smirk. Jane went to the elevator and started using the explosive gel she had in her pocket.

"Don't bother with it, Ms. Goto. It's code locked and heavy encrypted. I had a feeling that was you at the door, I knew if it was you, Ragan would make sure that you get in," Hock said. "I know who is with you Ms. Goto. Ragan Kaiba-Shepard, John and Jane Shepard."

"You know me, I hate to disappoint," Kasumi said. "So how did you find out about us?"

"Easy, I have hackers twenty-four seven monitoring the extranet. Ragan was very good at the hacking and editing the software on his side but my hackers were better. They found a way to get info about him. And when I saw John, I thought he died until the N7 program gave me a letter of giving a sales called 'Sale of Great Commander Johnathan Shepard'. And they asked me to make sure that I have other parts involved like his sister's name. They gave me a photo of her so that I can see what I can do with it."

"Well, at least you know."

"I can't allow you and the graybox to leave, Ms. Goto, that data is key to keeping the Alliance off my back and you know I'm willing to get my hands dirty, as your little boy toy." Kasumi glared at Hock.

"Murderer," she growled.

"Yeah, so what, kill him to keep me out of prison..."

"Hey Hock," John said. He looked at him as John took out the Locus and shot one of the artifacts.

"NOOOOOOO!"

"Oops, my finger must have slipped," John said with a smirk. Hock gave John a murderous glare.

Jane laughed at the event and looked at Hock. "That shut him up."

"KILL THEM," Hock barked. Eclipse mercs flooded the room; two heavies, four troopers and a woman leading them with tech armor on.

"Move in and take them-," she said. John got out his Hydra and pulled the trigger. The woman saw the projectiles flying towards them. "Oh shi-," the Mercs flew as the missiles hit them and the explosions roared. The path to the next area was open.

"Let's go," Kasumi said. She looked back. "Cuz!"

"Hold that thought," John said as he scanned the Quarian Tablet. "Now we can go.

"They went into the next door and quickly took cover from more Eclipse troopers and an YMIR mech. They took out the first two troopers quickly; John then shot the canisters near the mech stripping it of its shields and armor. Kasumi aimed at the mech's head and fired, cuasing it to fall down and start beeping. Jane then threw a small grenade at the mech and then two explosions became one. Once they got fare enought down the driveways, Hock sealed them in, so they headed up the stairs to the right and through the door. Their battles continued through the underground corridors. YMIR mechs on occasion, but mostly Eclipse mercenaries with LOKI mechs. Their fighting eventually brought them to the landing area. As they ran towars the landing pad a whiriling sound was heard and a gunship appeared in the sky.

"I offered you the easy way," Hock growled through the speakers. "Let me show you the hard way." John and Kasumi went left while Jane went right; taking cover as the gunship fired at them.

"Whoo! I must have really pissed him off," John said with a smirk.

"You think," Jane asked annoyed. "You're not... No don't do it..."

"Sorry but I am," John said. "Ragan now." The gunship then started to weave left and right.

"What the hell," Hock said. Ragan then slid down to the window and gave Hock the coldest murderous look he had. Hock was scared. Didn't know if Ragan was going to punch through the glass and grab him or start ripping the armor off. Ragan then took his omni-tool and pressed one button.

"Shields down at zero percent," the gunship VI said.

"NO," Hock said as Ragan punched through the glass and threw Hock out of the gunship to where the rest of the team was at.

"Autopilot and auto turrets on," the VI said. Ragan then gets on his comm link.

"Oh, Joker, time to play with the gunship." Ragan then jumps off and pulls the tab. He gently flies down. A roard appeared from behind the gunship. It was the Normandy, Ragan had took Joker to stand-by just in case things had gotten stick. "I know how cheat."

"W-what the hell," Hock asked. He looked at Ragan and John. "You!"

"Hey Hock, you were right, I am a cleaner of the galaxy. I clean the galaxy like you," John said.

"Shepard!"

"Bye-bye Hock," he said as Kasumi got up and shot him in the head. The Normandy opened fired on the gunship. The gunship burned as it fell into the water near his mansion as the shuttle appeared.

Laster on the Normandy, Kasumi set everything up to access the greybox thanks to EDI. She had called John and Ragan, for support as she plugged herself into the box. The image of Keiji appeared before them. The holographic HUD went across Kasumi's eyes planting her in a holographic world. Keiji stood before her.

"Kasumi," he said. "If you are watching this, it's because I'm dead. The information we found is all here." He pointed to an array of holographic screens. The first screen depicted some sort of glowing structure. She ignored what Keiji was saying and looked longingly at his memories. One stuck out the most; it was the night Keiji proposed to her before they left to Shanxi. She saw as he knelt down and put the ring on her finger and she saw herself smile as she knelt down and kissed Keiji on the lips, the last tiem she would ever feel his lips. "It's big Kasumi. If the Council ever got wind of this, the Alliance could be implicated. Kasumi, I-I encrypted the information to keep it safe. And I uploaded the encryption key to your greybox, so no one can get the whole package. But if I'm dead... And if anyone knows about this... Then I've made you a target my love. I'm so... so sorry."

"Keiji... I'm so sorry I suggested that heist. I'm sorry...," Kasumi said in tears.

"I know you Kasumi. You'll want to keep these memories forever, but you don't need some neural implant to know that I will always be with you. Please, Kasumi. Destroy these files. There's nothing more i can do to protect you."

Kasumi's head whipped towards Keiji. Her virtual figure ran towards Keiji and begged him. "I-I can't. This is all I have left."

"Goodbye, Kasumi. I love you."

Kasumi embraced him. Desperately wanting to keep him in her arms. The recording ended. She looked to John, who took off his visor and Ragan, who was studing the graybox.

"Can't we just destoyr the files," John asked.

"No, it's intergrated with his memories, you can't destroy one without the other," she said sadly. "Heavy protocol nine version three."

"Protocol nine version three," Ragan said. "I can hack into it and get the data to the Alliance. I'll also be telling them that their N7 Programming supplier has died of a natural causes."

"You may not want to hear this...," John hesitantly started. "But you should destroy the files."

"I can't it's all I have left, the only thing I have left."

"You destroy this files, then there will be another chance of another Donovan Hock may be in the Special Forces Programs. We need this," Ragan said. "Without it, we can't counter anything like this. This is big John, think. If you were in Alliance High Command, would you give this data to the Alliance?"

"You're right Ragan," John said. "I didn't mean for it then." He then looks at Kasumi and sees her looking at the graybox. "Give Ragan the graybox. Nothing will be deleted."

"Thank you, both of you," she said. He then handed to Ragan, who nodded. She softly cried, knowing that this would be good for her and everyone else.

"Hey, come here," John said softly as he embraced her.

"Thank you, John. Thank you," she said.

"Anything for family." 


	111. Chapter 71: Rite of Passage part 1

Chapter 71: Rite of Passage

"Okay, now keep your eyes closed," John said. "And no peeking..." After finishing the last mission with Kasumi, John decided to take the opportunity to surprise Tali with a special gift, from Hock's estate. Tali however was getting impatient and was about to lower her hands. "Ah-ah! Just wait, Rookie."

The quarian sighed. "John, can't you just tell me," she asked annoyed.

"It's a surprise, Rookie, just be patient," John said as he sat up his omni-tool. "And now."

Tali opened her eyes and her eyes widen. John recorded the image of the stone tablets from Hock's vault. Tali grabbed his arm and examined the written up close, it was her people's language, although an ancient version of it. "Keelah, where did you get this," she asked in awe.

"I got from Hock's estate," John said. "Do you know what it is?"

"It is the Hukum ko Berskutu, the oldest document from our homewold," she said. John tilted his head in confusion, waiting for an explanation. "it means Laws of Power within the Heart, Soul, Strength, Mind, Spirit, and Unity in Kellish; they are my people's first written laws."

"I knew it was important, so I or rather Ragan and Kaiden pulled some favors in the Alliance, the tablet is being returned to your people as we speak," John said. He then heard sniffling. "I thought it would cheer you up, you after the trial, but I guess not?" He lowered his head.

All of the sudden, Tali pounced and hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Keelah. Thank you," she said. "You don't know what this means to me..."

John kissed her mouthpiece. "Anytime," he said.

Tali gave a playful smile. "'Anytime', huh?" She began to take off John's shirt as the Spectre kissed her neck. Just as they were getting into things they heard a beep from his omni-tool and Kelly's image appeared.

"Uh, Commander?"

JOhn frowned. "What?"

Kelly saw John on top of Tali, both wearing very annoyed expressions on their faces. She blinked. "Um... I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Kelly said.

"No. Not at all, just a moment with my girlfriend," he said annoyed. John liked Kelly, she was a kind and capable woman but she was the absolute queen of bad timing. John sighed. "What is it?"

"Grunt just picked a fright with Ragan and Jack, and they may wreck the ship," she said worried.

John's eyes grew wide. Grunt must have pissed Ragan beyond the brink of the last nerve in order to have him go fight a Krogan; especially when it is a tank-bred one. John sighed and shook his head; this was not what he needed it. "On it." He got off of Tali and helped her off the bed. "Goddamn it...," he muttered. "Later?"

Tali hugged him. "Later."

John left his cabin and went down to engineering. As he got down there he felt shaking, and ran to the source coming from Grunt's room. When he got inside, he had to duck as crate went flying towards his head. John saw Jack, glowing an intense blue and very pissed off, in front of her was Grunt with a toothy grin on his face. Ragan was behind him with a shotgun pointed at Grunt's head. As annoyed as he was with Kelly interrupting his time with Tali, she was right to call.

"FUCK YOU," Jack growled as she blasted Grunt with a shockwave. Grunt shook it off and punched at her, the smaller woman ducks and gives a biotic kick to the Krogan's chest, pushing him back. Grunt gave a feral grint and charged, Jack charged also. Before they collided, John put them both in stasis fields, freezing them both. Jack and Grunt had a loot of confusion and saw John walking between them, not at all amused by what he saw. Ragan then puts the shotgun away and limbs out of the room.

"You, stay," John said without looking, Grunt and Jack looked at each other with wide eyes.

'Damn, he didn't look where Ragan was at,' Grunt thought. 'Must be super hearing.'

"What the fuck is going on here? I leave you people alone, and I get a call of you three tearing up my ship," John asked angrily. Jack and Grunt wasn't listening as they were staring daggers at each other. Ragan just sits down in a chair and starts popping his bones back into place. "Well?!" Jack and Grunt looked back at John.

"Talk to the fucking lizard, I was minding my business and this jackass sucker punched me," Jack said angrily. "Do something about this Shepard, or the Normandy will have one less Krogan."

"I accept your challenge, puny Human," Grunt sneered.

"Anytime shithead," she growled.

"Me? I was doing the same thing. Minding my business and next thing I know, Grunt comes out of nowhere and rams me to the wall," Ragan pointed at the wall and showed a big dent. John was about to say something but Ragan continued. "So I got my shotgun. You better do something or his head will be blown off."

"You deserve it," Grunt said.

"Grunt, this is an A-B conversation so C yourself out before D jumps over E and F you up like a G so what the H, do you think I am J K with you?! Well, L M tell you N and O are about to make you P yourself on Q. R you just going sit there like a fucking S and drink your worthless T, well U better V getting up before I W by slicing you with an X. So Y are you still here?! I better Z you walking out right now," Ragan said with venom. Grunt looks at him with wide eyes and quickly shut up.

"Enough! Jack go to Chakwas and get that eye checked out, Ragan same with you and see if she can get your bones back in place," John said. He then gazed to Grunt. "As for you, stay, we're going to have a little talk." He then released them from their prison and dropped to the floor. Jack got up and walked out of the room as she grumbled angrily, Ragan followed in pursuit, leaving John and Grunt. John looked at grunt and crossed his arms.

"You! Explain now, and it better be the fucking excuse of the century." Grunt paced around the room, growling. John never seen the Krogan so restless before, then again the only reference he had been the stoic Wrex.

"Something... feels wrong, Shepard. I feel wrong, tense. I just want to kill something, with my hands," he growled. "More so than usual, like it's not my choice. Like I want to, I don't know..." He walks up to the window and head butted the glass. Looking at the glass in confusion, he turns around to John and points at it, "See? Why did I do that? What's wrong?"

"Okeer didn't imprint anything in your tank," John asked. "How often have you been having this problem."

"No Okeer didn't imprint anything about this... thing," Grunt said while looking out of the window. "When we're moving, fighting, there's no problem. But here, my blood makes noise, it's screaming. I've got no past to lead me. The tank gave nothing on itching plates and losing control."

"Hmm, sounds like a Krogan problem, which means we'll need a Krogan for this solution," john said. "Or we can take our chances with our med-bay."

"Your doctor will have nothing for this. After the genophage, all Krogan doctors stopped working with other species unless they were paid more than what they had on Tuchanka."

"Joker get us to Tuchanka, we need to nip this in the bud, before it comes a problem," John said.

"Got it, Commander, ETA four hours," Joker's voice was heard through the room thanks to the small intercom Lia put in.

"Thank you, Shepard. I don't like this; fury is my choice, not a sickness," Grunt said while walking to the tank and just stand in front of it.

"And don't ever attack any of the crew anymore," John said. "Or you will spaced while we are moving next to a sun." Grunt's eyes went wide.

Tuchanka was a dump, a wasteland, what was once the capital of the Krogan homeworld was now nothing more than a crater. The shuttle flew into an underground bunker and landed on the pad, the team got out. The inside wasn't as bas as the outside, but it still wasn't a pretty sight with rubbles, holes, burn marks, and occasional dried blood of different species on the wall. Grunt picked up a rock and scoffed. "This is the homeworld? The resting place of Kredak, Shiagur, and Veeoll? This hunk of rock is barely worht standing on," Grunt said. "Never thought I'd miss the tank."

"Wow, when Wrex said the Krogan bombed their homewold to hell, he meant it," Garrus said.

"Who's Wrex," Grunt asked.

"An old friend of ours, he fought with us two years ago," Tali said. "He's a Krogan battlemaster."

The Krogan blinked. "A battle master who fought with aliens? You must be quite the warriors then," Grunt said.

"Actually, it was more like he was bored for a fight," Kaiden said.

"Bored and wanted excitement," Ragan said. "Better to have it like that than something else."

A Krogan in yellow armor came up to them. Grunt assumed a threatening stance and growled. The older Krogan however didn't seem fazed in the least.

"What do you want," John asked.

"For some odd reason the clan leader wants to meet with you," the older Krogan said. The team looked at one another.

"Why?"

"Who knows? All I know I wouldn't keep him waiting," he said. He then gazed at Grunt. "And keep your pet Krogan under control or we will do it for you."

"And you kill one of my crew members, I will kill you," John said while pointing a shotgun at the Krogan's head.

"I wish to tear his head off," Grunt growled.

"Do it after we find out what's wrong with you," Ragan said.

The team walked through the ruins of t Tuchanka on the way to the clan leader, as they walked they received looks from the only Krogan. They were not welcoming in the least, and they thought they heard some growls coming from a couple of them. Even the varren were growling once they got to the pit.

"And I thought the stares on the Citadel was bad," Tali said.

"Don't let it bother you, the Krogan were never very welcoming, even before the rebellions," Garrus said.

"Before the Rebellions, they killed sixteen Salarians every hour that came on this planet," Ragan said. "And when the Rachni Wars began, they started killing more Slarians."

"Let's just get this over with; I don't want to outstay my welcome," John said. They entered the main area of the bunker, easily the worst looking area of the bunker. John shook his head; he couldn't understand how anyone would do this to their own homeworld by choice. The team went up to the area overlooking rest of the Krogan no doubt where the leader was. As they came closer they were stopped by two guards.

"Halt! You must wait until you are summoned, the clan leader is... in coverstations with other clan leaders." John then heard a voice from behind.

"YOu know what tradition demands... Clan Urdnot must respond. Your reforms will not go unopposed, you risk appearing weak at a critical time," the first Krogan kept talking, but the other Krogan, simply bored, until he looked over to the team. Eyes wide with one eye that had a huge scar on the right side of his face. The guards looked back and revealed Wrex wearing new white armor.

"SHEPARD," the Krogan said exciedly.

"Good enough," John asked with a smirk. The Krogan guards the nodded and got out of their way. "Excuse me." The team walked up to the battlemaster, the older Krogan looked confused and then frowned. He didn't like seeing aliens on the homeworld, and was appalled Wrex would allow it.

"Shepard! My friend," Wrex said while extending a hand. John shook it. "You look well for dead, Shepard. Should have know the void couldn't hold you."

"What no hello," Garrus asked. Tali and Kaiden waved and Ragan gave a smile.

"Vakarian, Tali, Kaiden, Ragan, so the old gang is back together? Where's Jane," he asked with a grin.

"Everyone except for Ashley and Liara. Ashley is being transferred but we don't know when, and Liara is tracking someone down," Garrus said.

"Jane is on the shuttle, she is better pilot than the one that took us to other places two years ago," Ragan said while looking at John.

"Always curious, I see, that Liara," Wrex said.

"Jane is on the shuttle, she is better pilot than the one that took us to other places two years ago," Ragan said while looking at John.

"Oh Hardy, har, har," John said before he hit Ragan, who ducked very quickly before anything happened. John then turns his attention to Wrex."Look at you, big man of the campus, glad to see Virmire worked out for some of us," John said.

"Ha! You made the rise of Urdnot possible, Virmire was a turning point for the Krogan, though...," Wrex gazes at the Krogan behind him while speaking the next part, "... not everyone was happy about it."

The Krogan snorted and pointed accusingly at Wrex, "You abandoned many traditions to get your way. Dangerous." Wrex was not amused as he walked up and then head butted the Krogan. he got off the floor and rubbed his plate as Wrex went back to the throne.

"Speak when spoken to, Uvenk. I'll drag your clan to glory whether it likes it or not," he said while looking over his shoulder before turning around and taking his seat on the throne. Uvenk growled.

"Always the charmer I see," Kaiden said.

Wrex snorted. "Someone has to keep these pyjaks in check," he said. "So how's the Normandy? I heard it blew up."

"Destroyed in a surprise attack by the Collectors, my idiot cousin and the pilot didn't get off in time and got John here spaced," Ragan said. "I read the reports. So Alliance and Cerberus - thanks to the truce - built another Normandy. And got John back on his feet while leading us. Glad they didn't pick me."

"Heh, well he look good, ah, the benefits of a redundant nervous system," Wrex said with a smirk.

"Yeah, humans don't have that," Kaiden said. Ragan coughed. "Except for him. Thanks to the Titan."

"Oh then it must have been painful then, but he's standing here and he's got a strong crew, what's that human saying? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger?"

"Kinda moot when you've died already, but whatever," John said.

"Got that Goddamn right," Ragan said without hesitation.

"Yeah. Takes me back to the old days, us against the unknown, killing it with big guns, good times," Wrex then shifted his gaze to Grunt, who was agitated and moving restlessly. "Who's the runt?"

"Grunt, he's a new member of my crew, something's wrong with him," John said. "If he took Ragan's bones out of place, then something is wrong. And we need a Krogan expert."

Wrex laughed when he heard Ragan got attacked and lost by a Krogan. "Ragan, I thought the Krogan that we fought while going against Saren were weak but this."

"Not what happened. He attacked me for no reason. Said his blood was screaming," Ragan said. Wrex then looked at Grunt and leaned forward.

"Turn around," Wrew said. Grunt stopped and looked at Wrex, growling softly. "Where are you from whelp? Was your clan destroyed before you can learn what's expected of you?"

"I have no clan; I was tank-bred by Warlord Okeer, my line distilled from Kredak, Moro, Shiagur, Beomla...," Grunt said.

Uvenk scoffed and got in Grunt's face. "You recite warlords, but you are the offspring of a syringe." Grunt glared at him and clenched his fists.

"I am pure Krogan, you should be in awe," he growled. Uvenk was about rebuke the insolent young Krogan until Wrex gave a sharp laugh causing everyone to look at him.

"A tank-bred with fire in his hump, I like that," Wrex said with a grin. "So Okeer bred you, you descent from a very hated Krogan."

"He's dead."

"Of course, if you're with John and Ragan; what else would he be," he asked.

"So what's wrong with him," John asked.

"There's nothing wrong. He's becoming an adult," Wrex said with a smirk. The team blinked, and looked at Grunt. They had thought something was wrong due to him being a tank-bred, but they never thought in a million years it was because he was growing up.

"Grunt is going through puberty," Kaiden asked in disbelief.

Garrus rubbed his head. "Couldn't we just give the kid a lap dance and be done with it?"

"I say we go through a series of test," Ragan said. "That's what they did with me in Japan."

"I don't care what you call it; Krogan undergoes the rite of passage," Wrex said.

"Great, another type of Pilgrimage," Tali said.

Ragan got close and whispered in Tali's hear. "Yeah, except that this Pilgrimage would probably get Grunt killed."

Uvenk growled. "Don't tell me you're actually considering it?! This thing is a joke, a mockery of our people!" The team glared at the older Krogan, they didn't like him insulting their crewmate.

"There's nothing wrong with him, just some growing pains," Wrex said. "I'll allow it."

"You go way too far Wrex! Your clan may rule, but this thing is not Krogan," Uvenk growled as he walked away. "Never would I hear about this...," he said about halfway to the Shaman.

Wrex shook his head. "Idiot. So Grunt, do you wish to stand with Clan Urdnot?" Grunt looked at John.

"Your choice, you choice and get it ready," John said.

Grunt looked out at the outpost. "It is in my blood. It is what I am for."

"Good boy, speak to the Shaman upstairs. Give him a good show and he'll set you on the path," Wrex said. "You too, John. How many times have you stepped in a mess for your crew, hmm?"

"Too much for comfort," Tali said.

"I guess that's why he has a good mate at his side," Wrex said with a smirk. "This going to be quite the show, it's been years since a Krogan survived the rite of passage." John blinked and looked at Wrex.

"Wait? Wait," John was confused.

"Let's just say it's a surprise," Wrex said.

"Krogan are known to get careless and cocky," Ragan said. "Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if a Thresher Maw came up."

"Great...," John said walking to the Shaman.

* * *

Poll up. This will see if you want to have modifications ready for the story before I get to the chapter so I can modify them a lot. Go to the my profile (M4ss3ff3ctf4n) and click on the poll then vote. Oh and this time, I have it a blind poll so please make sure that you have different types of choices selected because so far, I only got five choices and they are tied. Three of the choices have 2 votes and the last two choices are 1 vote. So I need more votes before I get done with part II of this fanfiction.


	112. Chapter 71: Rite of Passage part 2

Chapter 71 Rite of Passage part 2

As the team went to speak with the Shaman for Grunt's rite of passage, they heard two Krogan discussing Grunt, as they got closer, they saw Uvenk talking to an older Krogan, possible older than Wrex. "You go beyond yourself, Gatatog Uvenk! The rites of Urdnot are dominate," the older Krogan said. "You're bark is doing no good."

John sighed. "This jackass again, looks like that Krogan got a bone to pick with you Grunt."

"If he gets in my way, I'll be him with his spine," Grunt growled

"Whoa tiger, save it for your rite, we still don't know what its entails," Kaiden said. Grunt, Tali, and Garrus looked at him blankly.

"What's a...," Garrus said.

"Feline that walks on all four and big. Powerful and a predator for Earth. Many types of them," Ragan said.

The team walked up, as Uvenk continued to argue about Grunt's unworthiness, which just made the old Krogan more annoyed. "How do we know the rite will challenge him? He's unnatural. The beasts of the rite could ignore him like a lump of plastic."

The older Krogan snorted. "They know blood, no matter the womb. Your barking does no help your case."

Grunt growled. "I'll speak for myself." The old Krogan and Uvenk looked at Grunt. "Are you the Shaman?"

"Yes I am whelp, so you are the tank-bred," the Shaman came up closer to Grunt, which made him growl. But the old Krogan's credit he didn't fazed as he continued to examine Grunt. "You're very lifelike," he said before sniffing. "You even smell correct. Your protest is hollow Uvenk." Uvenk just scoffed and crossed his arms.

John scoffed and stepped forward. "I don't care what this idiot says, Grunt deserves to be here," he said. The Spectre gazed at Uvenk. "Maybe you're just scared he'll wipe the floor with you." Uvenk glared at John and growled.

Ragan got his chain kunia out and start twirling it in a circle motion. "Don't even try. You attack him, you have to face me. And believe me, I'm worse than any Krogan is." Uvenk just backed off a little, Ragan gave narrowed his eyes while keeping the kunia in air.

"The aliens have fire, they weakens your position, Uvenk," the Shaman said with a hardy laugh.

"If this must stand a ritual, then I invoke a denial! My krantt stands against him! He has no one," Uvenk barked.

"Wait he can do that? Even with Wrex's permission," Garrus asked.

The Shaman sighs. "Yes he can, Grunt who is your krantt? Your allies must be willing to die and kill on your behalf." John, Kaiden, Tali, Ragan, and Garrus stepped up.

"We do, name our target and it will die," John said with a smirk.

The Shaman nodded clearly impressed with the loyalty of the aliens, however Uvenk didn't feel the same. "Aliens? This is the best the tank-bred can do," Uvenk scoffed. Garrus crossed his arms and snorted.

"Afraid these 'aliens' will show you up," Garrus asked.

Uvenk pointed at him accusingly. "You aliens and your tank-bred are insults to our hallowed ritual," he growled. Ragan got sick of this and quickly took Uvenk's arm and broke the armor before placing a knife in the skin. On instant, Uvenk quickly got the arm out and stared at Ragan. "You think that hurts...," he stops when he heard laughter. "Shaman?"

"These aliens have spirit, most aliens...," he then looked at Uvenk, "... and some Krogan do not understand our ways," he said with a smirk. "I see why Wrex speak so highly of his old companions."

John heard a slight growl in frustration from Uvenk and smirked, the fact that the battlemaster was losing case on denying Grunt's rite and losing badly was starting to get to him. "Aliens don't know strength! My followers are true Krogan. Everything about Grunt is a lie."

"Watch what you say, bosh'tet, most people don't get away with insulting our crew," Tali growled.

"Is that a challenge, suit-rat," he growled. Uvenk confronted Tali, not happy with a lesser alien was disrespecting him. He towered over the Quarian, if he could not deny Grunt, the very least he could do was put on of his allies in their place, unfortunately he picked the wrong on. Before he could do anything to Tali, John came up and sucker punched while Ragan head-butted Uvenk so hard, he fell down on the ground. The whole room stood in shock silence, the head-butt was special among the Krogan it was a way to project dominance but also challenge it and this human just challenged a battlemaster's dominance, a dangerous move. However it took a while to process that Uvenk was still in shock from Ragan's head-butting him.

"You... you dare," Uvenk asked in disbelief.

Ragan got in his face. "You insult my crew and threatened my cousins' mate, so yes I GODDAMM DARE," he growled before punching Uvenk in the face.

The Shalam gave a hardly laugh. "I like this human, he understands. You've been outmatched, by aliens no doubt, and your krantt sees weakness from you," he said.

Uvenk got up and dusted himself off. He looks at Ragan with narrowed eyes, who was returning the same expression. "I have other ways to deal with this," Uvenk growled as he walked away, not before pushing past the human that insulted and embarrassed him. But Ragan was smart, he got the shotgun ready and fired, making Uvenk run out of the area.

"You've made him angry, very dangerous, enough for me to like you," the Shaman said.

"Is he going to be a problem," Kaiden asked.

"No, once the rite starts he can't interfere," the old Krogan said.

"What do we need to do," John asked.

"To begin the rite, only the candidate and his krantt are required," he said. "Bring your love to the fight to Grunt's trial and he will succeed."

"I need time to prepare," John said. The Shaman nodded. Back at Wrex's camp, John and the team gets ready for the rite. However not before tending to Ragan's bruised forehead, Tali used cream version of medi-gel and applied it to the CXO's forehead.

"Fuck, I knew Krogan were hardheaded, but I didn't know they were that hard...," Ragan said.

"Serves you right, what the hell were you thinking, head-butting a Krogan," she asked.

"Uh, I wasn't... it was kinda spur of the moment," Ragan said while a green, but yet small, light went across the forehead. "Fucking Titan, should have waited for that because now the medi-gel will take forever."

John laughed and shook his head. "Anyway, any idea on how we are going to deal with the trial," he asked.

"Uvenk said something about the 'beasts of the rite', it could mean fighting lots of Varren," Kaiden said. "I would take a shotgun just in case."

"And I suggest - just in case of the coup don't work with your method due to Thresher Maw. Remember we are on Tuchanka - I suggest you get get something that can kill. Jacob said he got a Krogan shotgun, two types. A Graal Spike Thrower and M-300 Claymore with automatic functions," Ragan said. "Might want to have a sniper rifle in case of Harvesters come in. One shot to the eye, kills them."

"Thanks for the advice," John said as he equipping his weapons.

"Who are you taking," Garrus asked. "From what he said, I don't think there is a limit to the people you can bring."

"Well there's me, Ragan - thanks to him head-butting Uvenk - and Grunt, so..."

"I'm coming too...," Tali said loading her Geth shotgun onto her back.

Grunt scoffed. "The beasts of Tuchanka will tear you apart, Quarian," he said. Tali glared at him and got in his face.

"I'm coming," she said firmly.

"I don't think you're changing her mind," Garrus said with a chuckle. Grunt grumbled as he loaded his incendiary ammo into his Claymore and loaded it on his back.

"You sure, Rookie," John asked.

"Yeah, I'm with Grunt on this on," Ragan said while placing his omni-blade to electric conductor. "The beasts are dangerous and well hurt you. After all, you don't have that much combat experience like some of the rest of us. Mainly John."

"I can't just abandon him, he is my mate after all," she said with a smile.

John smirked. "I guess you can't," he said. "We each take a heavy weapon, and prepare for anything." Grunt and Tali nodded as Ragan got his ML-77 Missile Launcher reloaded on power cells. They finished loading their weapons and then heard footsteps; it was Wrex coming into the room.

"All prepared? The native are quite restless," Wrex said. "Oh, only three are allowed, one must stay off the field. Sorry but that is the law."

Ragan sighed then looked at the team. "I'll leave then, not sure if I can get anything done anyway." He jumps down from the crates and walks out of the room. Garrus and Kaiden looked at him and gave a chuckle.

"All prepared," John said putting on his Archon Visor.

"Good, you wouldn't want your crew to miss out would you," Wrex said with a smirk.

John palmed his face. "You didn't..."

"I did, your crew is quite excited to see their two leaders in action but since you can't argue with a mate, it will just be one leader," Wrex said. "How could I say no?"

"Easy," John said while shaking his head.

"Too late, now," he said. John sighed.

The team headed to the Shaman and the Shaman sends Grunt and company to the traditional grounds of the rite. Meanwhile as the team gets ready for the fight, the Normandy crew, as personal guests of Wrex, got to their seats. Miranda sighs, they were supposed to fix Grunt's problem and somehow John had gotten involved in a Krogan bloodsport but Ragan told her that it was required to fix Grunt due to being an adult and needed to be - in Krogan eyes - an adult. "I get that we are to fix Grunt but why is this required," she asked annoyed. The crew sat down, all around them were hundreds of rowdy and restless Krogan waiting for the rite to begin. Jack spoke up.

"Got to love the Krogan, they know how to party," Jack said with smirk. "I feel strangely at home."

"I guess you would, considering you have the intelligence of one," Miranda sneered. Jacob palmed his face as Jack glared at her. It's never quiet on the Normandy when Miranda and Jack is concerned, they made it very clear from the beginning that they don't like each other at all, the usual Miranda and Jack argument would stand out like this: Miranda will do something that will piss Jack off and Jacob, Kaiden, or Ragan is there to get between them before shit escalates and then they stare daggers at each other and then walk away giving each other the cold shoulder, rinse and repeat. But if Ragan got between them, it was all Hellfire and Brimstone towards them and he would force them to be apologetic.

"What was that, bitch," Jack growled. Jacob got between them and Jack backed off, moving away. "Watch your girl, Taylor; she's close to having a broken neck."

Jacob sighed. "Noted," he said as he grabbed Miranda's hand. Next Thane, Lia, Samara, Ragan and Kasumi went to join them.

"Lively as ever I see," Samara said.

"You have no idea...," Jacob said. "I'm guessing you guys didn't have any trouble."

The ninja and thief sighed. "We almost did, Zaeed almost started a fight with one of the Krogan over prices," Kasumi said.

"Damn right," he sat down next to Kasumi. "Two thousand credits for grilled Pyjak, that's bloody robbery!" He growled as he ate the Pyjak on a stick.

"And yet you're eating it," Ragan asked.

Zaeed snorted. "Better than that stuff your personal chief calls food." Ragan rolled his eyes.

"Better than Rupert's food, sure after I bought some of the gourmet foods that the Alliance told us to buy just in case this becomes a fucking suicide mission," Ragan sighed as he took Zaeed's food away. "And give me that..." He throws the food down on the ground but Zaeed quickly picks it up and starts eating it again. Jack and Miranda looked at each other with shocked expression, while the rest were about to throw up.

Kaiden and Garrus joined the rest of the team. "Can't believe that Jane isn't coming," Garrus said.

"What wrong Officer Vakarian," Ragan said. "Don't tell me you like my cousin. If you do, then let me tell you something, I will hunt you down if you do anything wrong to her." Garrus looked at Ragan before gulping.

"No, she isn't coming, Wrex said whole crew, but she's not leaving."

"Don't blame her, Joker has to stay and besides, if Joker gets hurt, then who will be flying the ship, ME! That's who and you won't like it," Ragan said with a sinister smirk. "I will make us go through asteroid fields or charge the Normandy through a sun." Kasumi and Thane looked at each other with shocked looks. Samara just laughed while Jack and Miranda shook their heads. For Jacob, he flipped Ragan off. Miranda saw what Jacob did and elbowed him in the rib cage. "Shocker right."

"Forcing that to us is most... unnecessary," Samara said with great concern.

"I'm scared to ask why my big brother is like this," Kasumi said while Thane and Samara chuckled.

"An individual can be seen like this," Thane simply blunted it.

Lia comes up and sits next to Ragan and Kasumi. "So what now," the young Quarian asked.

"Patience," Ragan said.

"Look, there they are," Lia said while pointing at a tank.

The UT-4F Tomkah roared onto the battlefield and the team got out of the tank. The battlefield was ruined like the outpost was. Rubble and Krogan bodies littered the battlefield, in the middle was a huge tower at the center of the battlefield. They didn't know what it was for but the Shaman said he would explain it soon. Their thoughts on what the rite would intel was interrupted by the roar of Krogan looking for blood behind them.

"They look friendly," Tali said.

"They're just excited, it's been years since the last rite, and it's the first time they've seen aliens and a tank-bred participating," the Shaman said. "And the fact that the great warrior Shepard is here, they're looking forward to a good show."

John smirked and shook his head. "We'll give him one."

"That's what I like to hear. But actions speak louder than words do."

"So what is this place," Tali asked.

"This is Tuchanka's most recent scar, the last surface city to fall in the Rebellions. The keystone is at the heart," the Shaman explained while pointing where at. "It has survived war and the passage of time. It endures like the Krogan."

"Any last minute advice," John asked.

"If you wish Grunt to join Clan Urdnot, you must contemplate the keystone and its trials," the old Krogan said. "Also, be careful because their have been reports of Thresher Maws in the area." Grunt gave a feral smirk when he heard about the Thresher Maws.

"What will happen," Grunt asked.

"Like I said, Thresher Maws were reported, so don't be surprised if they are here. Who knows about the other part? You must thrive, no matter the situation," the Shaman said. "Any true Krogan will."

Grunt smashed his fists together. "I'm ready, let's do this."

"You're confident now, but many have died in the first few minutes of the right," the Shaman looks at Grunt. "Do not underestimate the beasts, they eat fools for lunch... sometimes literally." He walked away to the tomkah and drives off.

"That's a pleasant thought," Tali said grimly.

"Let's get started, Shepard. Hit the keystone," Grunt said impatiently. John nodded and a loud sound made them jump. They then heard a booming voice.

"First the Krogan conquered Tuchanka... and mastered a natural world that only we are fit to hold."

Grunt gave a feral grin when the machine quickly slams down to the ground. "Here they come, I'm ready," he said. The first was summoned multitudes of Varren and they all descended upon the team.

"Tali use your drone and Grunt...," before John could finish Grunt jumped in and started to bash the Varren around. "... uh... you... uh... you keep doing what you're doing."

"Keep the pribadi alive," Tali asked.

"Yeah, keep the so-called idiot alive," John said. Tali summoned Chatika to support Grunt. John froze the first Varren that came after them and then shattered it with a throw. One of the varren jumped at Tali but she gave a hard roundhouse kick at the side of the varren and then shot it with her Geth Shotgun.

"I AM KROGAN," Grunt shouted as he stomped on the skull of an unlucky Varren. One of the Varren lunged at the Krogan, but Grunt grabbed the fish-dog and gave it a hard head-but. "MORE! COME ON," he shouted in glee.

While the team was fighting for their lives, a group of krogan looked on from the shadows. "The tank-bred is doing well, he may succeed, battlemaster," one of them said.

Uvenk looked at him and scoffed. "Killing a few Varren doesn't make a true Krogan, but his strength does intrigue me," he said. "If he proves his worth, we may be able to co-opt him and take him before Wrex does."

"The Clan Leader won't be happy about it, if he finds out, our clan could suffer."

Uvenk smirked. "Let him find out, with the tank-bred strength under our control, Clan Urdnot will see its last days." Uvenk then looked at the crowed and saw them cheering on the team.


	113. Chapter 71: Rite of Passage Part 3

Chapter 71: Rite of Passage part 3

The Varren lunged at John and the Spectre threw the fish-dog back, making it collide with several members of its pack. Tali directed Chatika to the pile of fallen Varren and ordered the drone to explode killing the fish-dogs. "John, Grunt's surrounded," Tali said. John looked over at the young Krogan who was surrounded by Varren. The first one lunged at Grunt, but the Krogan grabbed it by the neck and slammed it to the ground with vicious glee. Four Varren leapt at Grunt.

"Grunt look out," John warned the Krogan. Grunt spun around and slammed his Claymore into the faces of the fish-dogs and went back to Varren near him that was getting up. One shot and the Varren was died, the four Varren got up and attacked and gutn hit them with a concussive shot. John froze two of them in the air and the fall shattered them to pieces. Tali charged her shotgun and the two Varren dissolved into dust.

"Varren's all dead," Tali said breathlessly. The team survive the first wave of enemies. All around them the Krogan spectator roared in great numbers at their first victory. "Looks like we have fans, John."

John looked at Grunt gloating over his victory. "I think it's more for Grunt than us," he said with a smirk. They then heard another loud sound, and the booming voice started again, the tower was automatic as soon as one trial ended, another one would start right away. "Grunt and Tali get ready."

"Ready for another round, Shepard," Grunt said excitedly.

"Then the Krogan were lifted to the stars to destroy the fears of a galaxy, an enemy only we could chase to their lair."

As soon as the voice quieted down, they heard multiple screeching around them. out of the holes came an insectoid species resembling crabs or bettles. They bared a resemblance to the Rachni but were clearly a different species. they came in threes from both sides of the area, attempting to flank them, the team came together back to back.

"What are those," Tali asked.

"Klixen, now it gets interesting," Grunt said with a grin. The Klixen came up to the team and opened its mouth and fire came out. The team ducked out of the way, scattering to different directions.

"They're FUCKING fire-breathers," John asked in disbelief. The team shot at them but they kept coming like the bullets didn't affect them. "Everyone switch to shotguns." They found that the shotgun were more effective against the Klixen's hard shell. Luckily unlike the Ranchi, they were much slower, giving them time to react. Two Klixen spit fire, and burnt part of John's armor, if the Spectre didn't duck he could have been cooked flesh easily. John looked at Tali and Grunt, they were having trouble also, the fire insects were just too persistent. "Everyone to lower ground, get some room!"

The team went down to the larger area below, and surely enough the klixen followed. "There's more are coming behind us," Tali said. John used his singularity field to lift them into the air, as it turned out they were also vulnerable to biotics. Tali summoned her drone for support, while Grunt tackled the klixen with reckless abandon. When John killed one of them, the Klixen exploded, knocking him down. "John!"

John got off the ground, dazed but unharmed. "Be careful they explode when they die," John yelled. Grunt however didn't listen and went in before tossing the creatures by the legs into a crowd and finished it with a concussive shot.

"What," Grunt asked. No big surprise that he wouldn't listen.

John sighed. "Never mind."

As the team fought the Klixen, the Normandy crew was cheering from the sidelines as it turned out they were enjoying the fight as much as the Krogan were. Even the usually serious Miranda and the stoic Samara, Ragan, and Thane was getting somewhat animated.

"They're doing pretty well," Kaiden said.

"That they are," Ragan said. "But I see multiple mistakes with their fighting parts for instance. John ducking not all the way when that insect attacked him."

Wrex gave a hardly laugh. "Was there ever any doubt, Kaiden," he asked. "I've never seen my people this energized before. And Ragan, lay off of this. You still have to fight Uvenk after this."

"When the boss promises something, he delivers," Garrus said with a smirk. Next to them were an excited Zaeed, Jack, and surprisingly enough Lia.

"Fuck yeah! Did you see that move Grunt pulled off? Spinning around before slamming his enemy to the wall then break the body with more pressure," Jack said excitedly.

"Did you see what the lass pulled off," Zaeed asked. "John's got quite the woman. He deserves her."

"Go Onii-chan," Lia said. "Kick their bosh'tet asses!" Kasumi shook her head while Ragan laughed softly.

"What's wrong, Kasumi," Thane asked.

"I think Lia's been hanging around with those two and Ragan too long," she said. Samara and Thane chuckled a little. Ragan looked at her and rolled his eyes.

"So your saying that she needs to spend less time with us," Ragan said. That got Kasumi's attention. She turns towards him and gives a smile.

"No, I'm just saying that you are going to make her into a super soldier," Kasumi said.

"Yeah, the lass is right about that. Her and Tali get well along in Engineering," Ken said. Ragan looked at him with a surprised looked. He didn't expect Ken and Gabby to be off the Normandy.

"Yeah, and I have to make sure that nothing bad happens," Kasumi said.

John froze two of the Klixen and threw them back at the swarm, when it defrosted it exploded taking the others with it. Grunt and Tali pushed them back with a shotgun blast, lowering their numbers. After a while, the Klixen stopped coming, they had survived another wave. They could breathe at least for a little while.

"How are we on ammo," John asked.

"We're almost out, that last battle took lot out of us," Tali said. "Are you okay, John?"

"Yeah, just need to catch my breath," he said while examining the burnt armor section. They then heard the booming voice again. John groaned, "So much for catching a break."

"Now all Krogan bear the genophage, our reward, our curse. It is a fight where the only goal is survival."

The team felt rumbling beneath their feet, it almost took them off their feet. "Something big is coming our way," John said.

"I'm ready," Grunt growled.

"Look," Tali said while pointing to the north. Out of the ground, came a gigant Thresher Maw coming at them.

"Aw you got to be fucking kidding me," John said. The Thresher Maw spat out acid and the team jumped out of the way. The team got to cover, while the Thresher Maw was going crazy. "This is all Wrex's fault, he never told me about a fucking Thresher Maw. At least the Shaman's report was accurate."

"This is crazy, we can't beat that thing without a tank," Tali said. They then heard Grunt laugh and quickly look at him.

"The perfect test of my abilities, I will savor this," Grunt said.

"Keelah, you're crazy."

"Maybe not, switch to heavy weapons," John said. Tali and Grunt nodded. "Give me time to charge the Cain, so I can wipe it out."

"Okay," Grunt said.

"Both of you be careful," John said. Tali and Grunt nodded before seperating on opposite directions to draw it from John. Tali used her missile launcher to break its hard skin while Grutn used the Hydra to lock it down. The maw disappeared underground.

"It's gone," Tali said. "It can come anywhere."

"Keep moving, it can appear from anywhere, yes," John said while running.

"John, behind you," Tali yelled. The maw appeared behind John and went after him. John started to run, dodging acid spit after acid spit. He found himself thankful for Cerberus and Alliance' upgrades; it was barely helping John keeping himself out of the maw's mouth. The Spectre zigzagged across the field and leaping over obstacles hoping that would slow down the maw so he could break away, he had no such luck.

"Shit, shit, shit," John cursed. The maw was gaining speed, the mako was looking pretty good now if it was there.

"Grunt," Tali said. Grunt nodded and the two fired at the maw to slow it down. When John got far enough, he pulled the trigger. The blast went inside the maw's mouth, the creature screeched as the heat from the blast was scorched the insides of the maw. The recoil and the blass pushed him back against the wall hard. When the explosion subsided, all that was left was charred remains of a Thresher Maw, the destructive power of the Cain struck again. The Spectre fell to the ground exhausted, Tali came to John's side.

"Are you alright," she asked concerned.

John smirked and laughed tiredly. "Hell of a ride," he said. Tali punched him in the arm.

"Bosh'tet," she said.

Grunt came up to them; his eyes lit up with joy, John could tell that the young Krogan was a lot less angry than before. Then he realized what the rite was really about, it was a way to help young Krogan burn away their excess anger allowing them to be part of society.

"That was amazing, Shepard, the way you killed that Thresher Maw was very awe-inspring," Grunt said with glee. "It was quite a work of art."

"That it was Grunt," Ragan came up to the team. Tali and Grunt looked at him with a surprised looked. Not knowing why he was there. Ragan then shook his head. "Leave it to a Krogan to see killing a Thresher Maw as art." Grunt then started to growl facing the east. "Uvenk is here."

"We have company," Grunt said. Appearing from the dust was Uvenk and his men. John frowned and got his weapon ready for a new fight. Meanwhile the Normandy crew was watching from the sides, worried about what was going to happen next.

"What does that idiot think he's doing," Wrex asked with a frown. Garrus go up with his rifle drawn. Kaiden got up also.

"I don't know but I don't like it," Garrus said. Wrex looked down at the battlefield and narrowed his eyes.

"Wait... let's wait and see. After all, Ragan had a feeling Uvenk would try something and he wanted to kill that Krogan."

Garrus and Kaiden looked at each other. "Why? They could be in trouble," Kaiden said.

Wrex gave a smirk. "I don't think we have to worry." Garrus and Kaiden sat back down and watched. Back on the battlefield, John and the team was waiting for the first move, but surprisingly nothing happened, still they didn't lower their guard.

"You live and you took down a Thresher Maw. None has done that in generations, Urdnot Wrex and his brother Wreav was the last ones," Uvenk said.

"My krantt gave me strength beyond my genes, which are damned good," Grunt said.

"This will cause discussion. I wonder... you say you are pure? No alien meddling in your construction? Just Warlord Okeer?"

"Get to your point, what do you want, Uvenk," John said. "If you want to kill him, give it your best shot."

"Not yet, this deserves consideration and good conversation," Uvenk said. Ragan narrowed his eyes as he aimed his shotgun at Uvenk's head.

"First you want to block him from his rite, now you're considering him," Tali said. "What game are you playing?"

"He is powerful, but he's also a mistake, but your potential could tip the balance of the clans."

Ragan narrowed his eyes. "I get it, this is all about the weeds of the fucking galaxy: politics. You don't give a damn about Grunt. Let me be clear about this, you want him dead, you have to kill us."

"You spit on my father's name, on John's name, and you expect me to join you, Uvenk," Grunt asked.

"With restrictions of course. You could not breed or serve on an alien ship, but you'd be clan in name," Uvenk said. Ragan didn't take to kindly to this.

"And you want that for your own power. I saw the power hunger in your eyes," Ragan stated. "You want to kill Wrex, so that you can have tradition brought back. Can't let you do that."

"And yet you have no say into the matter," Grunt said. "Let me deal with this. You would have me as a trophy and a puppet to wave over Wrex, this is not what true Krogan do." Grunt pointed his shotgun at Uvenk. "You are a pretender, Uvenk."

Uvenk growled, "Your head is valuable whether you're dead or alive."

"Just try and take it," John glowed while Tali pointed her weapon at them.

"KILL THEM," Uvenk ordered. Ragan quickly took his shotgun and shot a head off a Krogan. John and the team then got to cover as Uvenk and his krantts fired carnage blasts at them. John got the Cain out once more and pulled the trigger eliminating Uvenk's krantt, only leaving Uvenk. Grunt and Ragan got out of cover.

"Got kick his ass," John said. Grunt gave a feral grin and charged at Uvenk. The older Krogan tried to blast him with warp fields, but Grunt was too fast. He rammed him hard and Uvenk fell back. The older Krogan punched Grunt hard in the face and Grunt responded in kind with a head-butt that stunned him. Before Uvenk could recover, Grunt fired a concussive shot at point-blank range, cracking his armor and making him fall back. Ragan came up and started shooting Uvenk in the arms and legs to break them.

"W-What are you, Uvenk asked in fear. Grunt grinned and then forced his shotgun in Uvenk's mouth.

"I AM KROGAN," he said while firing his shotgun multiple times until there was no head left. Grnt gave a victorious roar and the Krogan in the sands joined in the roar.

Wrex gave a hardy laugh. "Uvenk chewed off more than he could handle," he said. "Good riddance I say."

Kaiden raised his brow, "Why do I get the feeling you were hoping for this?"

"I never did trust Uvenk, he was always a problem but I never did anything so I could keep the peace," the old Krogan said. "We don't need the clans fighting each other anymore, not when the Reapers could show their ugly faces anytime soon."

"So what will happen to Uvenk's clan," Garrus asked.

"The females, the young, and remants of clan Gatatog will be adopted into clan Urdnot."

"You keep the peace and Clan Urdnot grows in stregth," Garrus said. "Has anyone ever told you you'd make a good politician."

"I have no idea what you mean," he said with a smirk.

"Uh-huh..."

"So what happens with Grunt now," Kaiden asked.

Wrex chuckled. "We welcome the newest member of Clan Urdnot with a feast and party," Wrex said looking at Grunt. "Things have just gotten interesting."


	114. Chapter 72: Man's Best Friend

Chapter 72: Man's Best Friend

Later that night, Clan Urdnot and clans affiliated with Urdnot gathered together in welcoming the newest member of the Clan. John and the Normandy crew was invited in joining in the festivities, however saying that the Krogan were hard party animals was an understatement of the year or was it century? The area they were in was nice... less beaten up than the rest of Tunchanka, Wrex had explained that before the nuclear war it was banquet hall of a long dead Krogan clan. Also invited to the festivities were the female clans, the team had never seen femal Krogan before until it was explained that females never leave the planet unless something important was called but even then, it was very rare. They were smaller than the male Krogan, but still towered non-Krogan and to their surprise much more civil. The food in the banquet hall was strange to be sure, Pyjak mean, maw heart, and Harvester meat, once everything was set up Wrex raised his hand and the Krogan quieted down. The Shaman spoke up.

"We are here today, because Grunt has passed his rite of passage, earning the honor of clan and name," he started. He turned to Grunt who then stood and approached the Shaman. "Many survive, but it has been years since a Thresher Maw fell! You and your krantt's name shall live in glory." Grunt kneeled before the Shaman, John smiled taking pride in the young Krogan.

"Grunt, you are now Urdnot. You may now own property, join the army, and apply to serve under a battlemaster," the Shaman said. "Who shall be your battlemaster, Urdnot Grunt? The one that you're willing to fight and die for, just as they would do the same."

"Shepard is my battlemaster, he has no match and so would his closest kin, Ragan Shepard for his honor on the battlefield and bravery of no fear."

The Shaman smirked and looked at the Spectres. "Interesting, it's not every day a Krogan choses an alien as a battlemaster but two of them," he said. "Your skills speak well for you, that is certain."

"An alien as a battlemaster, absurd," one of the Krogan said.

Grunt growled and looked around the room not at all amused by the outburst. "Who dares insults one of my battlemasters?" One of them stood up. He was a large Krogan wearing blue armor, he was larger than Wrex and Grunt, he had a yellow fringe. He pointed at John.

"I do, this puny human, a battlemaster," he said. "You have better chance making a pyjak one." His men all laughed as Grunt growled at the insult. "Let us take the tank-bred, we'll teach him how to be a real Krogan." His men around him all grumbled in agreement.

"Fuck you, Krogan," Ragan said.

Garrus whispered to Wrex, "Who's he?"

Wrex sighed. "Granvik, leader of Clan Yatav, they are the brother clan of Glan Gatatog," he said. "Just like Uvenk, Granvik was against me from the beginning."

John got up from his eat and chuckled. "You know the idiots that doubt my abilities, they tend to die horribly," he said. "And Ragan is a witness of it."

Ragan got up and pointed at the Krogan. "You think you have a fucking quad, you have nothing compared to me. I have what makes it through the life while you just sit down on your fucking FAT ASS AND JUST THINK OF A FUCKING EXCUSE FOR A LOWLIFE LIKE YOU SO YOU DON'T WORK A SINGLE SECOND OF YOUR WORTHLESS LIFE!" The Krogan was shocked at what Ragan said. "How about this, you just go back to your seat and stay there before we kill you."

"Is that a challenge, human," Gravnik growled. John gave a feral grin, and Tali paled, she knew that grin, it was the tell-tell sign of any Shepard about to do something incredibly brave and incredibly stupid.

"Uh-oh," Kaiden said.

Ragan looked at him and shook his head. That indicated to stay out of this. He then looked back at the Krogan and gave a feral gin with narrowed eyes.

Tali palmed her face. "Oh no..."

Miranda spoke up, "I take it John and Ragan do this a lot."

"You have no idea..."

The Granvik gave an unsettling grin. "A human with a quad, interesting..." He was impressed by the Humans standing up to him, their eyes showed no fear. Wrex once told the Krogan that John was the most dangerous Human in the galaxy but never told them that Ragan was ten times worse. They even saved the Citadel from destruction. he and other believed them to tall-tales from the clan leader's travels, but after Grunt's rite, he wished to test the stories himself. He gazed at the SHaman. "Set it up." The setting then changed moments later, to small room with a large circle in the middle, the crowds the Krogan crowding the sides. Normandy crew came in last and was seated in front with Wrex as the three men came in and took their place in the middle, all three sporting vicious grins.

The Shaman gave a booming laughter. "About between battlemasters, but it would be boring if there's nothing at stakes." He looked at Granvik. "What will you wager?"

"Five of my clan's most fertile females, if these Humans manage to defeat me," he said. The Krogan grumbled in surprise, a fertile female was the most prized of any Krogan clan since the Genophage. An offspring was what kept a clan alive and by extension the Krogan people, for him to make such wager meant he was awfully confident. The Shaman nodded and looked at the Humans.

"Only one must fight, choice now," the Shaman said. John looked at Ragan and then walked away. Indicating Ragan would be fighting. "And you Ragan?"

"If he wins, then we will relinquish the title of battle..."

"No human, if I win then Grunt will join my clan," Granvik said. "Unless the human and Urdnot's Clan leader is afraid. And I get your heads after this."

Wrex smirked. "I accept your challenge." The crew looked at Wrex.

"You sure about this Wrex," Garrus asked.

"Yes, I have no doubt Ragan will win," he said.

"Your faith in the human will be your downfall," Granvik said with a smirk. And with that fight began with the cheer of the Krogan roaring in the background. The two men circled each other looking for an opening to exploit; meanwhile Tali prayed to her ancestors that Ragan's latest impulse don't get him killed. "I'll be honest, I was looking forward to facing one of the great 'Heroes of the Citadel', and I want to see if you live up to your name."

"Sure, why don't you find out, you fucking lizard," Ragan said with a smirk. The Krogan looked at him with a narrowed eyes but Granvik raised his hand to indicate it was alright. Granvik charged at Ragan, giving a flurry of blows, but Ragan quickly just casually dodged his blows, his expression not changing. Ragan struck back with flurry blows, but the large Krogan blocked them with no problem, the Spectre tried to a kick, but Granvik grabbed it and tossed him to the floor. But luckily Ragan was quick, during the middle of the toss, he raised his right leg and did a scissor kick to the Krogan's head. Granvik then charged and slammed Ragan in the wall. He then went in to stomp Ragan but the Spectre rolled out of the way and countered with a strong biotic kick to the side. Staggered back, the Krogan looked but was too late as Ragan quickly punched him two times followed by the chain kunia to the stomach.

"GET OVER HERE," Ragan yelled while pulling the Krogan. As the Krogan was pulled, Ragan took his sword and sliced him in the stomach area twice before doing a back-flip kick which had some biotic boost. Due to the biotic boost in Ragan's legs, it made the Krogan go flying to the other side of the area.

As Granvik got up, he looks at Ragan and takes his fist to wipe the blood off the corner of his mouth. "Not bad for a Human," Granvik said. "Not good either!"

"We'll see," Ragan said. Granvik charged at him again and Ragan kept on doging his blows, until a stray rock on the field caused him to lose balance. Granvik smirked and gave a hard right punch to Ragan's face and then hard charge to Ragan's chest.

"Ragan," John gasped. Granvik went in for another right and Ragan blocked it only for him to be opened to a hard head-butt tot he face. Then a volley of punches. The Shaman leaned in to Wrex.

"This isn't good, Wrex, if this continues, Ragan will die."

"Just wait for it," Wrex said. Granvik kept up with the assault with Ragan in the defense.

"Ragan, to gain an advantage, use your hearing, not your sight," Thane said.

Ragan closed his eyes, and Wrex gave a smirk. "This is the great Ragan? Your victory over Uvenk was nothing more than luck, the tank-bred chose poorly," Granvik said. Ragan then took Granvik's arm and twisted it down so badly a pop was heard. Tali and the crew just looked at what was going on. Ragan then slide under his feet and gave a hard heavy one stand kick to the back. The Krogan got up and charged at him but only to see the Human jump over his head. Ragan was gone and he felt something cold beneath his feet, he looked down and saw ice on the floor. "Ice? You think you can stop me with ice?!"

"And it's over...," Wrex said. The Krogan charged at the Human, but then he flet himself slipping, as he tried to regain his balance, Ragan glowed blue and gave a hard biotic punch to Granvik's face. With the ice on the floor, he slipped, and fell on his back before he could get up, Ragan appeared over him and let loose a volley of quick biotic attacks in the chest over and over, until he left the large Krogan dazed in a small crater. That didn't finish it, Ragan then jumped up in the air and quickly slammed himself into the Krogan's body, making Granvik grunt in pain.

"Do you yield, Yatav Granvik," the Shaman said.

"I... I yield," Granvik said reluctantly.

"Then as promised, you shall give up five of your fertile females to Clan Urdnot," Ragan panted and collapsed on one knee, he had won, but that fight took a lot out of him. John ran up and helped him to his feet. Wrex walked up to him.

"Nice work, Ragan, I almost want to make you an honorary Krogan," Wrex said with a smirk.

"You mean I wasn't," Ragan joked tiredly.

"Good point."

The festivities went under way; the Krogan partied hard and drank hard. So did the Normandy crew, Garrus was comparing scars with other Krogan, Zaeed was sharing old war stories, and Jack was trying to drink one of them under the table. Miranda and Jacob went somewhere alone. John however was getting the cold shoulder from Tali, over him allowing Ragan accepting Granvik's challenge while she was fixing him up with medi-gel. Tali put medi-gel over Ragan's busted lip and he winced in pain from the stinging. John tried speaking but tali beat him tot he punch.

"You stupid bosh'tet, of all the stupidest things you have done, this is it," Tali said. "Are you crazy John? Having Ragan challenging that Krogan to fight, really?" John rubbed his head sheepishly. "I mean what would have happened if he had killed him, do you ever know what that what done to us, to me?" John was silent he didn't think of that, he didn't think at all. "Damn it John, we just got you back! Just because Titan runs in his veins doesn't make him invincible!" She finished with the medi-gel and Ragan spoke up.

"Go easy on him, he was the one that back down from the fight, I didn't. And I'm sorry for scaring you. We promise not to do that again."

Tali crossed her arms and turned away from him, not believing it, John came close to her. "Let me make it up to you, please." Tali turned around and crossed her arms.

"Fine, but you have a lot to make up for," she said. "And for you," she pointed at Ragan, "You have to take my shift in Engineering."

"Fuck," Ragan said.

"Any ideas," John asked Tali with a smirk.

"Well...," she said sultry. "You could help me with the shopping." John and Ragan blinked.

"What," John asked.

"Help me with the shopping for the Normandy, what you thought I was suggesting," she said. John blushed. Tali giggled. "Pervert, although help me out, and well..."

"Hot damn, let's get started," he said grabbing her hand as Tali giggled.

"Go ahead. I have some stuff to do," Ragan said has he got up and walked from the two love birds.

John and Tali went tot he outpost store and met with a Krogan near him a big tan Varren with black and blue stripes on its back. When the Krogan saw the two of them, you would think he saw a celebrity, though they kind of were.

"You're the Human and Quarian that fought with the tank-bred," he said. "What can I do you for?"

"We're looking for parts for our ship," Tali said.

"We got some pretty old stuff, anything you need?"

"Let me look. This won't take long, John," Tali said looking through the parts. John nodded. As he waited for Tali, he took the time to eat some grilled Pyjak, as he took from the party; just as he was about to take a bit the Varren came up to him.

"What do you want," John asked. The Varren stared at the grilled Pyjak, wiggling his tali. "No! Get away," John said. The Varren lowered his head, and a grunting sound was made, almost like he was whining. John didn't know why, but it was almost cute, if you could look past the fact that it looked like a cross between a fish, lizard and a dog. John was about eat it, when the Varren brushed up against his leg, and did a strange guttural sound like it was purring. It really wanted the Pyjak. John sighed. "Here." He threw the food in the air and Varren caught it. The Varren's eyes lit up and it pounced John and licked him. He then heard a shriek, it was Tali.

"Get off of him, bosh'tet," she said getting her shotgun out. The Varren got off him and went behind John. Tali stopped and tilted her head. "What?"

"I think you scared him," he said. He then faced the Varren, crouched down then petting him, it was so strange its skin was cool and smooth to the touch. "It's okay, the scary Quarian is really a nice girl when you get to know her," he joked.

"Bosh'tet..."

"So what's your name," he asked. The Varren looked at strangely. They then heard a voice.

"His name is Urz," Ratch said. "He's taken a liken to you, Human, which means he's stuck with you."

"What do you mean?"

Ragan came up and saw Urz licking him. "Get the fuck off of him you fish-dog!" Tali and John looked at Ragan, who wasn't impressed by the event. Urz got off and started growling at Ragan until Ragan quickly threw some meat towards the Varren. The Varren went to it and ate the meat.

"His owner got exiled when he tried to kill the clan leader, but he's never bonded with anyone else, until now," Ratch said before seeing Ragan. "Oh shit..." Urz wagged his tail as he looked at Ragan but then back to John. The Krogan laughed. "I think he wants to go with you, John."

"Thanks but no, I don't know how the crew is going to react to Urz's presence, we're so used to killing Varren after all," Tali said.

"Come on, Tali, how can you resist a face like that," John asked. Tali looked at Urz as he looked at her, almost like he was begging her. She had to admit, Urz was cute, in his own way.

Tali sighed. "He's cute, but how will the others react?"

"Wait, you were going to consider that," Ragan asked. "I find this full of nonsense."

"Itoko ni zehi, to omoimasu," John said.

"Fine," Ragan said. "Telling me to think." Ragan walked up to Urz and petted the Varren.

"Only one way to find out." The team went back to the ship, John and Tali snuck Urz on board, it was hard to keep him hidden due to him wanting to explore every ounce of the ship. John had gathered the team in the conference room for their little surprise. Luckily Ragan was distracting them.

"What's this about, brother," Kasumi asked.

"We nee to talk about our new newest member of the Normandy crew," Ragan said with a smile.

"New member? I haven't gotten any dossiers from the Illusive Man or Hackett," Miranda said. John and Tali came in with Urz. The team looked very surprised at the sight of the Varren, Urz for his part just yawned and scratched himself not concerned with the looks.

"A Varren," Miranda asked. "You recruited a Varren?"

"Actually it's more like he followed us, you see me and John kind of fed him, and he took a liking to us," Ragan said. "So he's kind of staying."

Miranda sighed. "Fine, but he's your responsibility," she said walking away. She looked back. "And keep it away from me."

"So how do you guys feel," John asked. To his surprise the crew, especially the women, had taken a liking to Varren. Kelly, Kasumi, and Lia especially, treating the Varren like a overgrown puppy. Even Jack was warming up to the Varren, as she sort of petted him, when Urz licked her hand. As for the guys, well they were indifferent and as was Urz, John had the feeling he like the girls more than guys. But Ragan got up to the Varren and started petting it on the head then rubbed the belly. Garrus and the others looked at him with a surprised look.

Tali chuckled, "I think he'll fit in just fine."

Mordin entered the room and looked at Urz, he raised a brow. "Ah Varren, sturdy creatures," he said. "John I need your help."

"What is it," John asked.

Mordin sniffed. "Colleague captured by Blood Pack, he may be tortured, because worked on Genophage. Fear for his life."

"Okay, first thing in the morning, we'll see Wrex."

"Thank you, John."


	115. Chapter 73: Old Blood part 1

Chapter : Old Blood part 1

**Ten Years ago - Sur'Kesh STG Base**

_The Special Tasks Group (STG) is a salarian espionage organization, usually deployed by the Citadel Council. STG operators work in independent cells, performing dangerous missions such as counterterrorism, infiltration, reconnaissance, assassination, sabotage, or heists. It was a big day at the STG base on the Salarian homeworld - Sur'Kesh - as the operatives waited on bated breath for an important signal, a signal that meant the difference between peace and war._

_"Package has landed. I repeat: Package has landed," a Salarian said. "Now deploying..." Huge cheers erupted isdine the base; the galaxy was safe, at least for a while. "Wait!" The operatives quiteded down, as they heard roars and gunshots being heard._

_"Shit! Krogan scouts, engaging them now," the sounds of battle could be heard for several minutes, the STG looked on at the vid nervously, if at least one scout finds out about their presence and reports to the warlord it was all over. The camera shifed to the left and a Salarian went down when a Krogan swiped at him, resulting in injuries to his face and right cranial horn. "Professor Solus!"_

_**Mordin - Tuchanka - STG Mission.**_

_"I'm fine, protect package," Mordin rolled out from the Krogan's feet and got out his assult rifle, he shot the Krogan dead in the shit, but he still came charging. He lowered his gun and shot at his leg, tripping him and then roasting him with an incineration blast. He looked around and saw his team quickly take down the other scouts quickly, Salarian may not be the sturdiest of the three Council races, but they could pretty much out think anyone. After the battle, batched himself up with medi-gel to stop the bleeding, the rest was going to have to wait until they got back to Sur'Kesh. They went into a big tower named the Shroud, a Salarian construct on the surface of Tunchanka. it was originally built to stabilize the atmosphere of Tuchanka due to the self-induced nuclear winter of the Krogan._

_The Shourd was deployed through the use of a number of ground-based towers, which acted as mass-drivers that launched the Shroud's components into orbit. Later, all but one of these towers were destroyed; this remaining tower became known as the Shroud, although the label is technically incorrect. The Shroud tower was repurposed to disperse particles and chemicals into Tuchanka's atmosphere, primarily for climate-control purposes. And now it would be key to ensure galactic peace._

_"Package all set, activating Shroud." The machines in the tower hummed as it came to life. "Green across the board! We did it!" The Salarians exited the tower as their shuttle, as the rest of his team came aboard, Mordin looked at the dead Krogan and bowed his head in prayer. The Krogan wasn't doing anything bad, just doing their jobs, but unfortunately it was in conflict with their jobs. And Mordin, for the first time, felt sympathy for the Krogan._

**NOW**

John, Mordin, Ragan, and Kaiden made their way to Wrex on the Salarian's assistant. As they walked, the Krogan looked at the Salarian with such hatred and contempt, Mordin was thankful to have John and Ragan with him. Due to John and Ragan's performances days ago, they were forbidden by the leader from touching them and their allies. As they walked to the main area, Mordin revealed more of his past as a STG member. Despite the hardship of that day, Mordin would remember those days fondly, devoting his time to endless scientific research and discovery with people he respected and admired.

"You know about the genophage," Mordin asked. Ragan looked at him and narrowed his eyes. Mordin was struck back at Ragan's expression.

"Yeah, isn't the bug that sterilized the Krogan," John asked.

Mordin shook his head; it was the typical response from aliens thinking the Genophage was a sterility plague. But Ragan said something before Mordin. "Not sterilized, but lowered their incredible birthrates," Ragan said. "Virus released thousands years ago. Controlled birthrates ever since. All public knowledge but it seems our good professor knows something else."

"What do you mean more," Kaiden asked.

Mordin looked around as to see if any of the Krogan were listening in, even after being out of the STG for ten years he still wants to be careful with the organization's secrets. "Recent generations of Krogan started adapting, genophage losing effectiveness," Mordin whispered.

"That's good news, the Krogan can recover to what happened to them," Ragan said.

"No, Krogan too warlike, culture broken. Population increase now would lead to increased aggression, more war," Mordin said. "Personally lead a team, created new version of genophage, released it on Tuchanka, and other colonies. Restabilized Krogan population."

Ragan looked at Mordin and stopped walking. Mordin knew that Ragan wasn't too pleased by this response. "The first genophage was a mistake boarding on a war crime! You uplifted the Krogan and look what happened. The Krogan are not that smart but they know when someone has weakness. Basically you made them rebelled when they should have been left alone. How the hell can you do it again?"

Mordin sighed. "Exactly the reaction feared, in small numbers, Krogan sympathetic, tragic. Galactic regret for deployment..."

"If they regretted it, then they shouldn't have done it the second time," Ragan countered. "You and Kirrahe are the only Salarians that have the right heads on their shoulders but it seems that misjudged them. How many more lies are you using to hide us from the truth?"

"None," Mordin said. "But in large numbers, expansion, aggression, war. Krogan too dangerous. Had to stop them."

"On what proof," John asked. "Because it sounds to me that the Krogan are no different from the rest of sentient life in the galaxy."

"Genophage was necessary, cultural fragmentation made modification even more necessary."

Ragan scoffed. "Necessary... Two hundred years ago humans thought imprison people because other race was necessary, because they might sympathize with the people they were fighting with."

"Ah, Human history. World War Two, American Government imprisons its Japanese citizens, regretful, but also not relevant, Japanese didn't cause the end of galaxy as we know it," Mordin said. "Can suggest ethics later more immediate concerns."

"Before you speak, professor," Ragan said with venom. "Next time see who you are talking to. My great-great-great-great grandparents were in those camps. My race raged war with Americans then we went to war with Germany and Italy after Hitler died and it took us a long time. My race nearly destroyed Earth in 2101. So can just justify that Mordin?"

"No," Mordin lowered his head. They made it to Wrex, the Krogan turns his head at the team and welcomes his old friends.

"John, can't keep away I see."

"Come on, you know how much I miss your cheerful personality, Wrex," John said with a smirk. Mordin tilted his head in confusion, it was so strange to see a Krogan be so civil with an alien, ever since the Krogan Rebellions the Krogan didn't trust much aliens. Kaiden leaned in.

"Wrex is an old friend of ours, he helped us against Saren and Sovereign," he explained.

"Ah, I see, he considers you his krantt," Mordin said.

"So what do you need," Wrex asked.

"We're looking for a Salarian, he was captured by the Blood Pack and brought here," Ragan stated.

"I see," Wrex then looks at Mordin. "My scout commander can help you; he's probably near the perimeter running target practice or getting the youngsters ready for security. Don't take too much of his time, I need constant watch on the clan."

"Thanks, we'll speak later." Mordin was surprised that Wrex would just agree to help, just like that even though they hated his people. Civil and helpful, Mordin had started to wonder if he and his people were wrong about the Krogan. The team made it to the chief scout inside of an outpost with a huge gun pointing out of the horizon. The chief was less than polite, as he looked at them and scoffed, he then turned his back to them, looking out at his post.

"Keep on youngsters," he said. He turns his head towards them. "What do you want, Human? Wrex told me to be polite he didn't say you were going to talk to me."

"We're looking for a Salarian, the Blood Pack captured him and he was last seen here," Kaiden said.

The scout looked at them and flinched when he saw Ragan. "Holy shit, you... I heard what you did to that Krogan a few days ago. Anyway. Blood Pack huh? Poor bastard that means Clan Weyrloc has him," he said.

"How bad are they," Ragan said.

"They're a relatively small clan, but they have the reputation as the most vicious, as they started the Blood Pack," he said. "I sent a scout to check it out, but he never came back, I think they got him. That was about five days ago."

"Why not get him back," Mordin asked.

"I would, nothing would make me happier to crack some heads and get my men back, but I would risk confrontation between clans," he looks at the young ones seeing them try to to ram each other. He shook his head. "And things are fragile enough. Plus I have to keep an eye on the clan and the young ones."

"Hmm, Krogan using head, for other than head-butting surprising," Mordin said. The chief looked at him.

He snorted, "Typical. Anyway, the chief told me to give you one of the trucks, just follow the highway to Weryloc's base, if you got the quads to deal with him and the Blood Pack."

They took the tomkah, John and the squad rolled across the ruins of Tuchanka. As they were riding Mordin shook his head, as he saw the ruined landscape of the planet, a planet they nuked of their own choice. "Such a waste...," he muttered sadly. John looked at him, he looked out of whind with a melancholy expression.

"You okay," he asked.

"Yes, of course," he said as he looked in the window. "We're here," the truck stopped before a large grey structure, from the looks of it, it was a medical facility form the red cross on the wall, it looked like something's are just universal. The building wasn't pretty to look at, then again most things wasn't pretty on Tuchanka, however if there was one thing they noticed it how it was still standing even as everything was razed to the ground. A testament to Krogan architecture.

"Amazing, even though they bombed their own homeworld, some buildings are still standing," Kadien said. Ragan nodded his head.

"Must be because if a Krogan goes in what they called Blood Rage, they need something sturdy," Ragan commented.

"Repurposed Krogan hospital, sturdy. Built to withstand punishment as Ragan said in geek form," Mordin said, Ragan rolled his eyes. Entering the hospital they only had one way to go down the stairs. "No vents, sorry Ragan." At the first landing they found a dead naked male Human body. The first human they've seen, not counting members of the crew.

"Any idea what happened to this guy, Mordin," John asked, gesturing towards the body.

Mordin came to the side of the man and opened his omni-tool. "Sores, tumors, ligatures showing restraint at wrists and ankles, and major concussion. Track makes for repeated injection sites," he said grimly. "Victim for experimentation." John and Kaiden grimaced as his words, even more when Mordin turned him over to reveal the deformities, the cuts, the bruises and the dried blood on the body. It reminded them of that one mission they had before chasing Saren about five years ago.

"Why would they test something like that on a human," Kaiden asked, looking more than a little ill at the sight of the desiccated corpse. "Wouldn't something native makes more sense?"

"Humans useful as test subject. Genetically diverse. Enables exploration of treatment modalities," Ragan said as he looked at Mordin's omni-tool. "Early stages, later stages would likely involve test on local fauna. Probably Varren. Would have to be careful, nasty bites."

"I know we all look different, but how are humans generically diverse," John asked.

"No beyond the superficial, humans more variable, Peaks and valleys, mutations and adaptations. Far beyond other life," Mordin said. He takes his omni-tool and moves it out of Ragan's sight. "It's down to genetic code, biotic abilities, intelligence levels. Can look random asari, Krogan, and make reasonable. humans to varied to judge, why humans are so feared and yet respected, your species' unpredictability is embedded in your DNA."

"So you think they kidnapped Maelon to help them cure the genophage," Kaiden asked.

Mordin frowned, looking down at the dead human. "Logical conclusion, if they discovered identity of members of my team then they could have surmised that Maelon would have the necessary knowledge to reverse engineer a cure," Mordin said as he took his hands and close the dead body's eye.

"This disturbs you, doesn't it," Ragan asked.

"Never used live subjects, disgusting, unethical, sloppy," he growled suprising his three human teammates.

"Okay motor mouth," Ragan said. "Don't be like a character I seen in a video game that was made in the twenty-first century. Don't be like Volteer."

Mordin looked at him, "I see you played Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning." John and Kaiden looked at the two people like they were talking in a different language. "Anyway, this is used by brute force researchers, not thinkers. No place in proper science."

"I imagine you had to use live subjects at some point for the new genophage," Ragan stated.

He calmed a little. "No. Unnecessary. Limited test to simulations, corpses, clones tissue samples. High-level tests on Varren," Mordin said. "No test on species with members capable of calculus. Simple rule, never broke it."

"Now we got two reason to shut this place down," John said.

"Yes focus on Maelon, too late for the dead." The team turned the corner and ended up in a big area full of boxes. At the ram above them, the door opened and they were met with a couple of Krogan and Vorcha; the team had their weapons ready. A krogan in red and silver armor walked to the front.

"I am the speaker of Clan Weyrloc, aliens. You have shed our blood, by rights you should be dead already," he started. "But Weyrloc Guld, the chief of chiefs, had ordered that you be given leave to flee and spread the message of our coming."

"Krogan tend to not let people. What are you planning," Ragan asked as he scanned the room. His focus was on a pipe and elbowed John. John looked at him and followed Ragan's gaze go from him to the pipes.

"If you walk away now, you can tell your children that you saw Clan Weyrloc before our Blood Pack conquered the stars," he said. The Krogan scoffed. "You think the Urdnot impressive? They are pitiful. Weyrloc Guld will destroy them. The genophage will be cured and Clan Weyrloc will spread across the galaxy in a sea of blood."

Mordin got close to John and whispered, "Appears they discovered Maelon's work, unfortunate."

"It doesn't have to be like this. We can understand wanting to cure the genophage...," Kaiden started.

The Krogan then growled, "No human you know nothing! You haven't seen our children that never lived. The Krogan were wronged! We will make it right and then we will have our revenge!"

"Half the galaxy sees the Krogan as victims," Ragan yelled. "If you start war, you'll lose their support."

"We have the Blood Pack, and we have the Salarian! When our clan is in the millions, we will not need support," he said. "When we cure the genophage, Weyrloc Guld will rule all Krogan! The Krogan Rebellions will be the Krogan Empire."

"Revenge digs two graves, but in your cause, it will dig a grave just to bury each of you Krogan," Ragan said as he lifted his pistol. "You talk to much." He dropped the sight of his pistol and fired a single round into the exposed pipe.

The Krogan looked at him and shook his head. "See even the Human can't hit a target." The hiss of the gas escaped its pressurized containment was barely audible, but apparently enough that the two guards began to edge away slowly. The Krogan laughed, waving dismissively at the them. He then looks down and hears the gas.

"Wasn't aiming at you, dumbass," Ragan said as he pulled the trigger. The round struck the metal railing with a spark and ignited the gas in a thunderous boom that engulfed the Krogan in flame. He had time to give a gurgling cry before smashing into the nearby wall from the force of the blast, still smouldering. The room erupted in a torrent of mass accelerator rounds. Two guards emerged from the other room at the sound of the explosion and immediately opened fire at the team, as they got to cover.

John laughed as what Ragan did, "And now it gets fun. Ragan you ready?" Ragan nodded.


	116. Chapter 73: Old Blood part 2

Chapter : Old Blood part 2

The Vorcha and Krogan came down in force, the Vorcha took their place above the ramps shooting the team, as the Krogan went down to get up close and personal. John took out his heavy pistol and shot one of the Vorcha in the head, making him fall off the rails. "One down," John said. Gunfire from the Krogan shotguns hit John in the side, shattering his shields and causing him to fall to the ground. It was good thing he upgraded his shields and armor, Krogan weapons were infamous for their destructive power. Just think the M-300 Claymore is what they use and it is the most powerful shotgun the Krogan use compared to the Graal Spike Thrower, so yeah it was wise to upgrade your shields and armor or you would be killed. Before the Krogan could close the distance with John, Kaiden and Mordin crippled the Krogan with neural shook, giving the spectre time to recover. However the vorcha were not, making it easy as they were trying to lock John down. Ragan had other plans, throwing the chain kunia at one of the Vorcha's head, making the other Vorcha look their comrade as another chain kunia hit another Vorcha in the head. Without thinking, Ragan pulled with all his strength making the Vorcha fly over the rails and land head first into the wall behind Ragan. Kaiden smiled and quickly froze one of the Vorcha solid with stasis, the Spectre threw a warp field, causing a chain reaction and freezing the vorcha in the area.

"Neural shock wearing off Krogan, must finish battle," Mordin said. John nodded and then got out his Arc Projector, frying every enemy in its path. The battle ended and the team went on through the hospital. As they walked, a sickening smell flowed into their noses, it almost made John and Kaiden gag, and they suddenly wished they had their masks guard the smell. Mordin and Ragan however was fazed due to their history with STG but unlike Mordin, Ragan wasn't part of STG. Mordin had a history as STG special operative and doctor on Omega. The team came to a fork and the Salarian sniffed the air and pointed to the left.

"Labs likely through there can smell antiseptic and dead flesh," Mordin said with little emotion.

"That's a nice though, thanks Mordin," Kaiden said grimly. They entered the next area, Mordin checked the terminal. Ragan looked at John, who moved his head to watch the door. Ragan took a hint and went the door they came through.

"Active console. May contain useful data. One moment," the Salarian said. "Genetic sequences. Hormone mutagen still steady. Protein chains, live tissue, cloned tissue. Very thorough."

"Speak English or Japanese," John said annoyed. Ragan looked at him and shook his head.

"He means they have an extensive database for the experiments," Kaiden translated.

"Oh is that all?" Mordin smiled as he continued.

"Standard treatment vectors. Avoiding scorched earth immunosuppressant to alter hormone levels. Good. Hate to see that."

John crossed his arms. "Most people wouldn't he so causal about a sterility plague, Mordin," he said. Ragan got up to them.

"Door clear," the previous Cerberus lab rat said.

The Salarian sighed. "Not developing. Modifying. Much more difficult. Plus Salarians live up to 40 years average so no way to develop Genophage when it was made around 1000 years ago. Working within confines of existing genophage. A hundred times the complexity," Mordin said. "Errors unacceptable. Could cause total sterility, malignant tumors. Could even reduce effectiveness. Worse than doing nothing, had to keep Krogan population stable. One in one thousand. Perfect target, optimal. Like gardening."

"Wait, you're saying you were working just as hard to keep their population from falling," Kaiden asked confused. "How is that possible?"

"Yes for the first question. Could have eradicated Krogan. Not difficult. Increased mutation to degrade genetic structure further. Chose not to," Mordin said. "Rachni extinction tragic. Didn't want to repeat. All life precious. Universe demand diversity."

"Diversity my ass," Ragan said as he narrowed his eyes. "I doubt the Krogan sees it that way - the diversity part."

"Genophage not punishment. Simply alters fertility to correct for removal from hostile environment."

"Maybe, come on let's go," John said.

"You're agreeing with this man," Ragan asked like he just got shot in the back.

John looked at him and rolled his eyes. They went into the next room, gasped at the horror there,t he wall and floors was smeared with blood and there were multiple bodies on the tables, some Krogan but from the look of it most were Human. Some were covered up and some were opened up, they could see multiple organs on the table and some on the floor, it was like a scene out of a horror movie than a hospital. They walked in to examine one of the bodies, a dead female krogan; Mordin picked up the datapad. He shook head.

"My god," Ragan mustered to say. "This is madness. Insanity. They are doing this over and over and expecting something to change change but it never happened."

Mordin nodded. "Agree." He looks at the datapad. "Dead Krogan. Female. Tumors indicate experimentation. No restraint marks. Volunteer," he sadly said. John and Kaiden looked at each other shocked, Mordin continued. "Sterile Weyrloc female willing to risk procedures. Hoped for cure. Pointless. Pointless waste of life."

"Hmm, didn't expect to be disturbed at the sight of a dead krogan," John said bluntly. Mordin glared at him.

"What? Why? Because of Genophage work? Irrelevant. No, causative," he shot back. "Never experimented with live Krogan. Kill with guns, knives, technology explosions, and, once before, farm equipment. But not medicine. Never killed with medicine. Her death is not my work, only a reaction to it..." He looks a Ragan.

"Every decision you've made ends with death and misery. You modify the Genophage. She died, and they are just one step closer of curing the Genophage and they cycle repeats," Ragan said with no emotion.

"I don't see the distinction, Mordin, directly or indirectly, she still chose to be experimented on like an animal because of your people's work," John said.

Mordin was taken aback and looked at the female. He took a deep breath as he closed his eyes. "Never wanted this. Can see it logically but still unnecessary. Foolish waste of life, hate to see it."

"I didn't think you had much contact with things like this. Did you come to Tuchanka after dropping the plague," Kaiden asked.

The Salarian sighed and nodded. "Yearly recon missions. Water, tissue samples. Ensure no mistakes. Superiors offered to carry it on. Refused. Need to see it in person," he said sadly. "Need to look. Need to see. Accept it as necessary. See small picture. Remind myself why I run a clinic on Omega."

Shaking his head the Salarian approached, smoothing the sheet with his hand. "Rest young mother. Find your gods. Find some place better."

"I didn't expect spirituality from you, Mordin," John said surprised.

Mordin frowned. Genophage project altered millions of lives. Then saw results. Ego, humility. Frailty of life. Size of universe," Mordin said. "Explored religions after work completed. Different faiths, different races. No answers. So many questions."

"Sounds like you were trying to deal with your guilty conscience," Ragan said. "The doctor who killed millions without doing anything but modifying."

"Modified genophage project great in scope. Scientifically brilliant, but ethnically difficult. Krogan reaction visceral, tragic," Mordin said. He shook his head. "Not guilty, but responsible. Trained as doctor. Genophage affects fertility. Doesn't kill, still caused this. Hard to see big picture behind pile of corpses."

"Can you just rationalize it all away," Kaiden asked. "How do you justify it?"

The Salarian sighed. "Wheel of life. Popular Salarian concept. Similar to Human Hinduism in focus of reincarnation," he said. "Appealing to see life as endless. Make mistakes in this one, fix it int he next. Learn, adapt, and improve." Mordin looked at the Krogan and sighed. "Refuse to believe life ends here. Too wasteful. Have more to offer. Mistakes to fix. Cannot end here. Could do so much more."

"if you need this much soul-searching to get over it, then maybe the genophage was wrong," Kaiden said.

"Had to be done. Rachni Wars, Krogan Rebellions all pointed to Krogan aggression," Mordin said. "So many simulations. Effects of Krogan increase. All pointed to war, extinction, Genophage or genocide. Save galaxy from Krogan, save Krogan from galaxy."

"Say that to the fucking Reapers," Ragan said as he pointed at him. "Reapers come here every fifty thousand years to commit genocide and yet no one - NO ONE - does a goddamn thing about it. But you do this to the Krogan but not to Reapers?"

"Reapers are not found until Battle of Citadel. Even then, just one. We have no proof of others out there. No, what he did with the Krogan had to be done but we can't do that to Reapers."

"Look at the dead woman, Mordin. It doesn't look like you saved her," Ragan said walking away.

"No it doesn't," Mordin said as he lowered his head. "Worked with available data. Only option. No other possible... doesn't matter."

"Then maybe it's time to look outside the microscope and computer program," Kaiden said following Ragan. Mordin walked away too with John, not before looking at the female Krogan.

"Was our own fault. Tried to fix it...," Mordin whispered. "Aware of the costs."

They moved down the hall until they reached a door on the right hand side. They opened the door to see a Krogan sitting on the floor. he looked up at the team surprised to see them. "You killed the Blood Pack guards," he asked. Mordin leaned into John.

"Not Blood Pack, not Clan Weyrloc. Wrong markings," Mordin whispered.

"I'm a Urdnot scout, Weyrloc guards got me. Brought me here," the Krogan said. He looked tired, like he hasn't slept for days. Armor was full of scratches and racks, his face was full of cuts and brusies, most of which wasn't fully healed. Krogan were known for their healing abilities, for them not to be healed, meant that Weyrloc beat him down good.

"The chief scout told us to watch for you. We've taken care of the guards. Get back to camp," John said.

"I can't. The Weyrloc did things to me. Drugs, injections. They said I was sacrificing for the good of all krogan," he said.

"And you believe them," Ragan asked. "Unbelievable..."

"Mordin can you get this idiot off his feat," John asked.

He shook his head. "I'm not too sick to leave. I have to stay," the Krogan said. "They're curing the genophage; they're going to make it all better! They have to keep doing the tests." Ragan got up to the Krogan, everyone looked at him with as shocked expression.

"Caution, patient unstable, brainwashed," Mordin said.

"Why do you want them to keep doing the tests," Ragan asked. The Krogan looked at him.

"This is my fault. I got caught, wasn't strong enough. This is the best I can do. This is all I can do," he said. "I'm not big enough to have a shot with the females. I'll never had kids of my own, but if helps cure the genophage and then I matter."

"God you're pathetic, all you got is a bruised ego! You got caught and beaten so you tell yourself it was for something important," Ragan said with a scoff.

The Krogan frowned; the team looked at Ragan nervously. "Ragan..."

"That's not true! YOUR MOUTH SPEAKS ONLY LIES! I need to stay! They're going to cure us all," the Krogan yelled.

Ragan scoffed and knelt to his level. He looked right into his eyes. "You're not a real Krogan." He punched the Krogan's head so hard, the Krogan was shocked at what happened. "A true warrior fights, not hides. Leave the sea of self pity. Real Krogan don't whine like a Quarian with a tummy-ache," he said as he kicked the Krogan again. "They get back up."

"I did! I got back up every time they hit me! So many... I fall, they repeat. Same cycle, over and over again," the Krogan said.

John smirked. "No wonder you can't get a woman, you're too fucking soft, a pitiful excuse for a Krogan not even worthy to lick the dirt off my boots," he said. Ragan smirked. "If you're the best Urdnot got, then Wrex got his work cut out for him."

"Watch your mouth," the scout growled out coldly.

John snorted. "Or What? You can't even stand, much less fight, your ass would be whipped in seconds," he said.

"Such a sorry sight, you're like a Vorcha gubbing in the mud, you just going to lie there Vorcha," Ragan asked.

The Krogan growled and glared daggers at the two Humans. "Screw you, Humans! Nobody says that to me! Nobody keeps me down!"

"Then get the fuck off the floor and show them what a badass you are, go! Get to Camp Urdnot, GO!" The Krogan got off the floor and gave a loud roar and walked out. Ragan stood up and stretched. "Well, let's go." The team went on further into the hospital.

"Did not think that would work... Impressive work, cuz," John said.

Ragan smirked. "A talent of mine."

"Ah-huh... You do know when Tali finds out about what you said about Quarians; you're going to be sleeping down where Jack is at right," Kaiden said with a smirk.

Ragan glared at him, "Which is why you're not going to say a goddamn thing, Kaiden. Same with you, John."

Both chuckled. "Our lips are sealed," they said in unity.

They opened the next door and led into a room with a platform in the middle, like an atrium. The team didn't take too much time to admire the sighs because the Blood Pack attacked once they went through the door. The team took cover, as the first ones come in where the Vorcha, one with a flamethrower and another with a rocket launcher. They were followed by two Krogan and three Varren. The team's com opened.

"Shepard, I'm detecting crates ahead that are holding unstable materials. A misplaced shot could cause a significant explosion," EDI said.

"Or a well-place shot. Explosive useful. Burn through Krogan armor," Mordin said.

"Nice," John said with a smirk. John use3d dominate on the Vorcha pyro, the vorcha attacked the Krogan and the Varren. One of the Varren bit the Voracha's leg and the other two quickly attacked went the pyro on the floor. John took control of the other Vorcha to add to the confusion, while they were fighting, they didn't notice an explosive crate neat them. Mordin lit the crate on fire and the crae exploded which overloaded the spyro sending everyone flying. They went down the stairs and got into cover. This area had more enemies and Chief Weyrloc Guld. He emerges from a door on the opposite side of the platform from them.

"Welcome to the madhouse, outlanders! I set a trap and you sprang it gloriously! Now let's get this fight started," the large Krogan said. "Tremble and die, alien scum! I am Weyrloc Guld, Chief of Chiefs!"

"Aw, and here I am thinking we could become best friends, too bad," John taunted.

The Krogan roared. "You mock me, human," he yelled. John waking thankful for the Krogan's short temper, as he began to charge the Spectre, allowing Kaiden and Mordin to pick the Krogan and Varren with him.

"And smart too, I'm going to miss this bonding experience," John said shooting his legs with a throw field. The Krogan tripped as fell at Ragan's feet. "Now."

"Hi there," Ragan said. As he readied his gun.

"Damn you, Human," Guld growled

"And bye," Ragan said as he unleashed a barrage of bullets from the N7 Typhoon. Kaiden, Mordin and John took care of the rest of the enemies with no problem. They eneter the next room; Maelon was on the other end of the room scanning a holo screen with two omni-tools. Mordin stepped past John, a frown creasing his features.

"Maelon. Alive. Unharmed. No evidence of restraints. No torture. Nothing. Don't understand," Mordin was confused.

The other Salarian turned, he was slightly taller than mordin, with reddish skin and narrower jaw. His face didn't look like that for the rescued captive; it held emotions far more unpleasant. Maelon pointed at his mentor accusingly.

"For such a smart man, professo, you always had trouble seeing evidence that disagreed with your preconceptions," he said angrily. "What will it take to make yo realize I'm here because I wish to be here? I came here on my free will."

"He came here voluntarily to cure the genophage," Kaiden said.

MOrdin was taken aback. "Impossible. Whole team agree! Project necessary! Had to be done!"

"How was I suppose to disagree with the great Doctor Solus? I was your student; I LOOKED UP to you! Not a friend but as mentor," Maelon said angrily.

"Experiments performed here. Live subjects! Prisoners! Drug use! Torture and execution. Your doing?!"

"We already have the blood of millions on our hands, Professor. if it takes a little more to make this right then so be it."

"Mordin, did you teach him this," John asked.

Mordin shook his head as eyes narrowed with hatred. "No Never taught him... this," he hissed with venom. "What he did here... abominable, unacceptable!"

"So your hands are clean?! What does it matter if the ground is stained iwth the blood millions," Maelon said angrily. "You thought me ends justified the means. I will undo what we did, Professor. The only way I know how. I won, you lost."

"Clan Weyrloc, are nothing but murdering thugs, if you cure them, then the galaxy might just decide to wipe everyone, you would be responsible for the end of the Krogan race," Kaiden said angrily. "They want revenge and will get what they want but this time if war breaks out because of the Krogan, it might be the end for them."

"We justified this atrocity by saying the Krogan would cause havoc and war if their population recovered," Maelon said. "But look at the galaxy, Geth attack the Citadel, Batarians attack colonies in the Traverse, Turians raged with war with Humanity... we justified our actions by saying that a Krogan population increase would bring war, but what if a strong Krogan military have prevented those things? Maybe you humans would never have lost Eden Prime or the Geth would have been stopped before nearly destroying the Citadel."

"Bullshit, you don't know that," Ragan said.

"Maybe, we'll never know."

"ENOUGH! Have to end this," Mordin said.

"Don't you see? We tried to play God and we failed," Maelon said.

"Playing God is one thing, but doing this is all other level," John said. "You uplifted them and look what happened. Krogan rebelled and you just got them sterile."

Maelon grew annoyed and started frantically waving his gun at the team. "You can't handle the truth. You just don't get it..." Mordin charges him former student, Maelon tries to fire but one wift punch in the face by his teacher and the gun is dropped to the floor. It was obvious while Maelon was a student of the science Mording had taught him, he was by no means a fighter like the older Salarian. Mordin had Maelon pinned to the wall with his gun up to his head. Maelon's eyes went wide with fear.

"Unacceptable experiments. Unacceptable goals. Won't change. No choice. Have to kill you," Mordin said with remorse. "I'm sorry."

John spoke up as Mordin got his finger ready to pull the trigger. "Wait, you're not a murderer, Mordin." Maelon shakes his head. "You're better than this." Maelon nods his head with a smile. Mordin's hand shook as his gun stayed in Maelon's face. "If you do this, then you're proving his point."

Mordin took a deep breath. "No, not a murderer. Thank you," he said lowering his gun. He lets go of Maleon, who drops to the floor and shaken from being so close to death. Mording puts away his gun and looked at Maelon. "Finished, Maelon, get out. No Weryloc left. Project over."

"You sure that is wise," Ragan asked. "I know the Krogan deserve a cure but what if he leaks out info about this?"

"Won't happen, STG good at covering tracks. Delete this terminal intel before he can come back for a cure," Mordin said with a smile. He looks at Maelon, "Didn't teach you everything."

The younger Salarian got up and glared at Mordin. "No..."

"Now get," Mordin demanded.

"You heard him, get out now before he changes his mind and I change mine," John said.

"Where am I suppose to go," Maelon asked.

"Don't care. Try Omega, can always use another clinic," Mordin said.

"The Krogan didn't deserve what we did to them, Professor. Deserve better. The genophage needs to end," Maelon said as he walked out of the room.

Mordin sighed and looked at the terminal. "Not like this," he said sadly. "Apologize, John. Misunderstood mission parameters, not abduction."

"You okay," John asked.

Mordin went to the termina. "No. Should have killed him. Wanted to. Easier than listening," Mordin said. "Easier for him, too. Experiments indicate how far he's fallen. Expected it from Krogan, not from my own."

"Maybe you'll remember that the next time, you're discussing the ethics of the genophage."

"Yes, so many variables. Stress responses, impossible to truly predict. Something to think about. Ease my mind."

"So what about the cure? What happens to it," Kaiden asked.

"Could destroy it. Closure, security. Still valuable, though," Mordin said as he read the terminal. "Or could save it."

"I don't agree with his methods, but he's right about one thing, the Krogan don't deserve this," John said. "Save the data."

"Why," Mordin asked. "Is it because of your views?"

"Mordin, what will it take for you to see that no matter what happens, the Krogan need a cure. They had a culture, a good one before they nuked their own planet. Then you came and helped them and uplifted them to fight. They defeated the second worst enemy the galaxy had faced, and you want them to go through this. I don't care if you call it 'not a punishment' but it is when only one in a thousand are born and they don't have many females," Ragan protested.

"Point taken, Ragan. Capturing data, wiping local copy," Mordin said. "Years away from cure but closer than starting from scratch." He pressed a button on the terminal.

"Local copy saved to OSD, rewritten, deleting old local copy," the terminal said. "Error, local copy password protected." Mordin enters a password as the terminal starts to blink red. "Password accepted. Deleting... 100% complete."

"Done," Mordin said with a smile. "Ready to go, ready to be off of Tuchanka. Anywhere else. Maybe somewhere sunny."

"Let's go," John said. The team left the hospital, leaving behind a ghost of unspeakable nightmares.


End file.
